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COLOMAN: A PLAY IN FIVE 
ACTS, BY EDWARD PERCY 
AND W. B. NICHOLS 


NEW YORK: LAURENCE J. GOMME 
LONDON: ERSKINE MacDONALD 

MCMXVI 






E. 


Copyright 1916 
by 

P. Smith and W. B. Nichols 


i 



JAN 24 1917 


©CI.D 46047 H 



yk 


To the Memory of 
LAURENCE IRVING 
At whose instance this Play was begun 
shortly before his tragic death 


K clkmv d’ait ooi polpav 'eveipe deos 

— Philetas 


COLOMAN 


CHARACTERS 


(LADISLAUS THE FIRST) \ 

COLOMAN ) . I 

ALMOS j hls ne vhews ( 0 J the House o f Arpad 
STEPHEN, son to COLOMAN l 

BELA, SOU to ALMOS / 


Nicholas hunyady, the Chancellor 
Gabriel eguon, an old warrior 
GUYON rakovscy, a young warrior 
MATTHIAS ODEV 
PETER ITTAKAR 

otto csupor, captain of the King's bodyguard 


two old counsellors 


Hungarian noblemen 


Robert of ujhely, his ancient 
fedor GYURI, afterwards his ancient 
THE ARCHBISHOP OF GRAN 
JOHN CSABA, chaplain to COLOMAN 
aladar maroty, a young priest 
simon szvela, magister acolytorum 
SIR GODFREY de bouillon, a Crusader 
krisch, a gipsy 


BUSELLA, wife to COLOMAN 
ILONA, wife to ALMOS 
rosalys, one of her ladies 


A Variety of Persons forming a Crowd 
Of Whom there speak: feth, a bell-ringer; anna, his 
wife; sergei- Michael, their son; an old woman, 
friend to anna; a miller; his daughter named else; 
ludovic, a huntsman; a merchant, a magistrate and 
his wife; a tanner; a wool-dyer; an armourer; an 
officer; three court ladies; a courtesan; an old 
shepherd and his son. 


5 


6 


COLOMAN 


Of Whom there are mute: Certain courtiers, folk, 
soldiers, crusaders, attendants, priests, monks, nuns 
and acolytes. 

The scene is laid in Hungary , in and around the city 


of Pesth. 

ACT I 

SCENE I. 
SCENE II. 

A Hall in the King’s Palace. 

In the Bishop’s Gardens. 

ACT II 

The Cathedral. 

ACT III 

SCENE I. 

The Summer Chamber in the King’s 
Palace. 

SCENE II. 

The Duke’s Tent. 

ACT IV 

The Summer Chamber in the King’s 
Palace. 


ACT V 

The Ruins of the Monastery of St. 
Sebastian. 


The action takes place during the close of the eleventh 
and the beginning of the twelfth centuries , A. D. 


COLOMAN 


ACT I SCENE I 


ACT I 

SCENE I The King’s Palace at Pesth. 

A vast, barbaric hall, richly yet sombrely mosaiced. To 
the spectator’s left is the main entrance. At 
the back, above some shallow steps, are huge 
doors leading to an inner chamber. To the 
right is a loosely-curtained window. In the 
centre of the floor is the hearth, round which 
are grouped benches and chairs covered with 
skins. The hall is lit by the glow from the 
hearth and by torches planted in the walls. 
Round the fire are seated Matthias odev, Gabriel 
EGUON, OTTO CSUPOR, ROBERT OF UJHELY and 
PETER ITTAKAR. GUYON RAKOVSCY stands by the 
window. On a couch in the immediate fore- 
ground lies duke almos, asleep. A leathern bot- 
tle has fallen from his hand. 

Matthias odey. What of the east, boy? 

guyon rakovscy. Faint green . . yet scarcely dawn. 

Matthias odey. ’Tis the soul's sabbath. 

Gabriel EGUON. A fit hour for the passing of a king. 
otto CSUPOR. Dark, dark for Hungary! 
guyon rakovscy. Why cannot the old foresee dawn 
in midnight? 

Matthias odev. They have endured too much . . 

otto csupor. Headstrong lad! The land’s destiny 
is darkened. Her Saint suffers eclipse. 

guyon rakovscy. Because one king dies, are we 


7 


8 


COLOMAN 


[ACT I, SCENE I 


paupers in majesty? Hungary is yet quick and young. 
Her youth is her majesty — whatever her bent-backs 
may be! 

aladar maroty has entered from the King’s 
chamber. 

aladar maroty. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem . . 
PETER ITTAKAR. What news, father? 
aladar maroty. The Prince-Bishop is even now 
administering the Extreme Unction. 

They all kneel. The priest stands above them. 
SIMON SZVELA enters from the left. Seeing them 
kneel , he pauses, watching them with a smile. 
simon szvela. . . Worship — or homage? Who is 
the King? 

ALADAR MAROTY. PaX VObisCUm. 

They rise. ALMOS groans and mutters in his 
sleep, simon szvela comes forward and mock- 
ingly drops on one knee before the sleeping 
Duke. 

SIMON SZVELA. Does the King speak? 
aladar maroty. Master Simon, King Ladislaus is 
not yet dead. 

simon szvela. Then Heaven waxes not impatient 
for its saints . . 

ROBERT of ujhely. The Duke wakens — 
simon szvela. Duke-King, King-duke . . 
guyon rakovscy. Duke-swine, swine-King! He will 
never rule Hungary. 

OTTO CSUPOR. Traitorous boy! 

peter ittakar. And if not he — who then? 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Coloman ! 
otto csupor. Coloman? 

ALADAR MAROTY. The Bishop? 

GABRIEL eguon. The Prince-Bishop? 
simon szvela. Bishop-king, King-bishop . . 
guyon rakovscy. He was King Geyza’s elder son. 
Robert of ujhely. [ Scornfully .] By a Greek concu- 
bine! 

otto csupor. Madness! — while Duke Almos was 


ACT I, SCENE i] 


COLOMAN 


9 


conceived by a regal mother. The throne is his by 
birth. Has not our saintly Ladislaus already named 
him his successor? Truly he loves him as his own son. 
GABRIEL eguon. Ay, for he hates the Bishop. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. He fears him! 

simon szvela. So greatly that he cut his claws. 

peter ittakar. How so? 

Simon szvela. He made a priest of him. 
otto csupor. And this suckling would have us war- 
riors ruled by a Churchman! 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Rather than by a sot ! 
otto csupor. [ Laying his hand on his sword.] 
Blood of the Virgin! 

Gabriel eguon. [ Restraining him.] And yet, look 
you, is it not the truth? 

otto csupor. [ Regarding the Duke.] The crown 
will cool his head. 

Gabriel eguon. Weak, weak . . 
peter ittakar. A weak king serves a strong court. 
otto csupor. And is he not beloved of the people? 
He is their idol — boon with them all: their natural 
lord and leader. But what following has your bookish 
Coloman in the land? 

aladar maroty. Holy Church would be with her son, 
Otto Csupor. 

Matthias odev. O waste of honest argument! 
Coloman is no self-seeker. He cares not for pomp 
nor for power. He is a scholar, a dreamer of dreams. 
I have known him from a boy. 

otto csupor. [ Turning to Rakovscy.] There is an 
end then of your King Coloman! 
simon szvela. Are you God? 

A procession of acolytes enters from the King's 
chamber , chanting a Latin psalm. They cross 
the hall and out to the left. The two last boys 
swing censers before JOHN csaba, who carries 
the Host. At its appearance all kneel reverently. 
On the threshold of the ante-chamber, csaba 


10 


COLOMAN 


[ACT I, SCENE I 


delivers the Host to aladar maroty, who hears 
it out, following the acolytes. 

John csaba. The King asks for the Duke. Rouse 
him. 

Matthias odev. Is the end come? 

JOHN csaba. He is almost past breathing. Hasten. 
otto CSUPOR. [Waking the Duke.'] My lord — my 
lord. 

almos. What now? 

otto CSUPOR. Your royal uncle asks for you. Quick, 
my lord! 

almos. What — not dead yet? Steady me, man, 
steady me. Where’s my half-brother? 

simon szvela. Before you — with the King. 

CSUPOR helps almos up to the chamber, pre- 
ceded by csaba. Gabriel eguon follows and 
stands looking in after them through the half- 
open door, guyon and Robert of ujhely wait 
silently at the foot of the steps. 

Matthias odev. Why do you out-stay your acolytes, 
Master Szvela? 

simon szvela. That I may not out-stay my fortune, 
good my lord. 

Matthias odev. Do you wait to kiss a saint’s shroud 
or a king’s mantle? 

simon szvela. My sins be forgiven me! 

Matthias odev. Come, my shrewd courtier, what is 
it you desire of the new King? 

simon szvela. Lace for my acolytes . . 

Matthias odev. Short words — long thoughts. 
peter ittakar. [Who is now seated on the Duke's 
Couch.] What does this fellow with thinking? 
simon szvela. To add a cubit to his stature. 
peter ittakar. You are apt, fool! Ah, — [his foot 
strikes the overturned bottle]. Sirrah, remove this. 
simon szvela. I am unworthy, my lord — 
peter ittakar. Unworthy? 

simon szvela. — to bear so much of the King’s 
majesty. 


ACT I, SCENE I] 


COLOMAN 


11 


He takes the bottle, concealing it beneath some 
skins at the back: then crosses to guyon 
rakovscy and Robert of ujhely with whom he 
stands conversing, peter ittakar turns to odev, 
who moves over to him. 

peter ittakar. What an impudent rogue is this! 
Why do you suffer him? 

Matthias odev. He saves a motley. It is good some- 
times to hear a man of the people. 

peter ittakar. Since when has Simon Szvela 
voiced the people? 

Matthias odev. He is too astute to voice the people, 
but what he thinks today the people may think tomor- 
row. Therein lies his interest, Count Ittakar. 

peter ittakar. He spoke contemptuously of the 
Duke. Think you, Matthias Odev, that the people — 
Matthias odev. They do not know their idol as you 
and I. His countess debaucheries — 

peter ittakar. Yet the people ever love princely 
failings. 

Matthias odev. In a prince, ay — but not in a 
king. 

peter ittakar. [ Whispering .] Matthias Odev, is 
there any warrant for this talk of Coloman? 

Matthias odev. A boy's enthusiasm — thistledown! 
peter ittakar. There is no enmity between these 
half-brothers . . 

Matthias odev. I know of none. 
peter ittakar. Yet some hold that the Bishop hag 
cause for jealousy. 

Matthias odev. Jealousy of the Duke? Cause, per- 
haps, but no inclination. Coloman has never viewed 
himself as aught beyond a king's bastard. He was a 
philosopher before he became a priest. If he har- 
bours enmity towards any man, it must be towards his 
uncle. 

peter ittakar. Towards the dying Saint Ladislaus? 
The Virgin forbid! 

Matthias odev. Well! Did he not tear him from 


12 


COLOMAN 


[ACT I, SCENE I 


wife and son when he forced him into the Church? 
Is that nothing? Did he not humiliate him before the 
Court? And leave his wife no wife, and his son no 
son? Nothing? He was afraid of him . . 
peter ittakar. Afraid? 

Matthias odev. For his favourite Almos and for 
himself. The saint ever fears the scholar. 

peter ittakar. Nevertheless he gave him a 
bishopric. 

Matthias odev. To deprive him of a kingdom. Yet 
there was no need. From the time that I dandled him 
on my knee have I been Coloman’s familiar: there is 
no purple ambition in him. 

peter ittakar. You comfort me. When the land is 
in faction, it is the rich who suffer . . 

busella enters leading Stephen, her little son, 
by the hand. 
busella. My lords, I — 

guyon rakovscy. [ Hastening to her.'] Fair madam ! 
busella. Fair as fair befall, boy. I am come — 
pah ! Shut out the grey smell of death. Is my husband 
within? 

ROBERT of ujhely. He who was your husband — 
GUYON rakovscy. Hound! 

GABRIEL eguon. [From the door.] Hush . . 
Matthias odev. Peace ! 

busella. My lords, I forget . . [To Robert.] Sir, I 
thank you for your memory. The father of my son — 
the lord Bishop — is he within? 

Matthias odev. Yes, madam, with the others. 
busella. What others? 

Robert of ujhely. The Duke, his wife and child — 
simon szvela. The whole royal house, gracious 
lady. 

busella. Are we of no account? Sirs, I am come 
to ask the King’s blessing upon my son. Is it not 
possible to admit us? 

Matthias odev. Surely you must see that it is not? 


ACT I, SCENE I] 


COLOMAN 


13 


busella. Not? He is of equal kin with the Duke’s 
son — the babe Bela. 

ROBERT of UJHELY. Bela is a prince of the line — 
peter ittakar. The King is beyond speech. 
busella. Yet if he could but see him . . 

Matthias odev. What purpose would it serve? 
busella. To regain my honour and my son’s just 
titles. This saintly King stripped us of them — he 
alone can revoke his own injustice. My son’s father 
is with him and my son’s place is with his father. At 
least, let in the child. 

Suddenly a wail of women issues from the 
King's chamber. They all pause for a moment. 
Then eguon shuts out the noise and comes down. 
busella. That was . . ? 

GABRIEL EGUON. Death. 

SIMON szvela. The Saint is gathered to the saints. 
The boy begins to cry. busella holds him to 
her. 

BUSELLA. Hush, do not be frightened. You are a 
prince. 

guyon rakovscy. [In a low voice.] Perhaps one 
day you will be my king. 

Stephen. Shall I really? “King Stephen?” I shall 
cut off your head! 

guyon laughs and catches him up in his arms. 
Gabriel EGUON. A great knight has doffed his har- 
ness. 

ROBERT OF ujhely. Long live the King! 
guyon rakovscy. God for Hungary! 
peter ittakar. Bear yourselves seemly against their 
coming forth. 

Matthias ODEV. [Who has crossed to the window , 
flinging aside the curtains and gazing out.] A fair 
star in a fair sky . . 

busella. Dawn has so many favoured children. 
simon szvela. Yet I see a cloud coming up. Fear 
not, lady, ’tis no bigger than a mitre. 

Two nuns open the doors of the King's chamber. 


14 


COLOMAN 


[ACT I, SCENE I 


almos, ilona bearing bela in her arms, coloman 
in his robes, Nicholas hunyady with the seal, 
otto csupor, and John csaba carrying colo- 
man's crozier enter. 

almos. [ Plucking at coloman’s sleeve .] What’s 

next to be done, brother Bishop? 

coloman. Bid the dead king’s esquires keep dutiful 
guard over his body till the burial. 

At a sign from csupor, Robert of ujhely makes 
obeisance and departs. 

Nicholas hunyady. Gracious my lord, suffer me to 
be the first to salute my sovereigns. 
ilona. Worthy Hunyady ! 

Nicholas hunyady. [ Proffering the seal.] I give 
back to the King what a king entrusted to me. 

almos. God’s body, keep it, man ! And you, brother, 
see to these obsequies. 

coloman. In all duty, brother and liege. 
almos. Spare no ritual. Yon’s the choirmaster. Bid 
him tune his boy’s throats. By Saint Cecilia, they need 
it! [To simon szvela.] Look you, master, if they sing 
no better than at last Mass, we’ll slit your tongue for 
your vile teaching. Come, good Csupor, to bed . . 
to bed . . 

otto CSUPOR leads him from the room. 

NICHOLAS HUNYADY. Shall I escort you to your 
ladies, sweet madam? 

ilona. We thank you, my lord. [He waits at the 
entrance. She turns to coloman, half -timidly.] Will 
you not kiss the child? 

coloman makes the sign of the cross above the 
infant, then bends down and gently kisses him. 
coloman. Little blosson . . My brother is blessed. 
Here Stephen slips from his mother’s hand and 
runs as if to touch the babe, ilona, seeing 
busella, shrinks back from contact with the boy. 
coloman seizes his hand and holds him beside 
him. ilona moves slowly to the door, singing a 
lullaby to soothe the wakened child. 


ACT I, SCENE I] 


COLOMAN 


15 


ilona. Now His the folding-time 

Of the weary moon . . 

She passes out , followed by hunyday. 

Gabriel eguon. I am afraid for Hungary . . 

GUYON rakovscy. Are we not all? 
coloman. See to it that you love the King. [To 
them all.] Good friends, who honoured my uncle and 
gave him tried service, go in unto him once more in 
last homage. 

peter ITTAKAR. Thanks, my lord. 

Gabriel eguon. We are fain to take our leave of 
him. 

coloman. [Taking his crozier from csaba.] Father, 
show them his face. And, above all, love the King. 

rakovscy, ittakar and eguon enter the death- 
chamber preceded by csaba. coloman turns to 
Matthias odev. He places his hand on his 
shoulder. 

coloman. You, iron-mind, gold-heart, pass in also . . 
true friend. 

Matthias odev. They have spoken of you tonight — 
coloman. How? 

Matthias odev. Tread your ways warily. If a 
strong king so feared your brain — how much more 
will a weak one? 

He bows to busella as he follows the others. 
busella. Have you no blessing for your own son? 
No word of greeting for me? 

coloman stoops and kisses Stephen on the brow. 
Then he rises and faces her with dignity. The 
boy , released , runs to szvela who engages him 
in play. They are unnoticed by busella and 
coloman during the ensuing scene. 

COLOMAN. Do you think I have no heart? 
busella. You keep it well hidden, my lord Bishop! 
coloman. A thing well hidden lies deep. What have 
I done to stir such bitterness in you? Your grievance 
should have died with the King. 

busella. One can have no grievance against the 


16 


COLOMAN 


[ACT I, SCENE I 


dead. I speak to the living. And I look for redress 
to the living. Have I not had to endure the foulest 
wrong that woman can suffer? For ten years have I 
been mocked of my inferiors, have I seen my son gibed 
at by the very pages! Your son . . Coloman, Colo- 
man! In those first, soft nights of wooing, little did 
we dream that a Saint’s breath would estrange our 
lips. 

* coloman. The King feared me, hated me — re- 
moved me. There was no choice. It meant the priest- 
hood or the assassin. Our lives — and that life within 
you — hung upon our obedience. 

busella. Better have died! This infinite exile from 
your arms . . I have no nun’s blood in me. Had you 
cared less for wisdom and more for love we should 
not have come to this. ’Twas your head that King 
Ladislaus feared, not your heart! 

coloman. Untamed, unreconciled, unhappy! When 
will you learn submission to circumstances? I have 
passed these years in a cloister. I have found peace 
there — even a measure of happiness. [Gently . ] There 
is always happiness to be won from the resolve to be 
happy. 

busella. I wedded a prince. What am I now? The 
others will tell you. We might have shared a throne, 
you and I — have fashioned a brood of kings. I was 
ambitious for you, my husband. Today, our future 
seems as dead as our past . . 

coloman. These are old complainings. If your mood 
keeps the same tenour, spare me the rest. 

busella. Hear me out. I seek redress — from the 
living. Our sainted enemy is translated to Heaven. 
For too long he overshadowed our lives. Now that 
we are free, it lies with you to cancel his fiat. 
coloman. How do you mean? 

busella. If one king could make you a priest, 
another can unmake you. This coxcomb — your 
brother — my lord Almos — is pliant and easily swayed. 
Induce him to obtain the Pope’s annulment of your 


ACT I, SCENE I] 


COLOMAN 


17 


vows. And further . . He is ready to impose trust 
in you. Now is your opportunity to make yourself 
the strong man in the land and me an honourable 
woman. Love the King — wedge yourself into his 
heart's counsels. 

COLOMAN. Do not trouble my peace. I have left 
the Court. I would rather watch men than rule 
them . . and the Church has need of me. 
busella. You are no Churchman! 

COLOMAN. Who made you the keeper of my con- 
science? 

busella. Ah, do not be cruel to me. I touch your 
hands now so seldom. Your hands that were so 
strong — so strong ! Let us knit up the old life. Be 
once again my husband. I am still ambitious for you. 
Mark me, the King’s death will divide the Court: a 
good time to thrust in. We should very soon regain 
our old power — the power that made us so feared. 
Perhaps we might rise even higher . . 

COLOMAN. Woman, woman, what thoughts are these? 
Would you have me plot against my brother — traitor 
to my King as well as to my Church? 

busella. Deeds are so swiftly done . . in a night . . 
coloman. Hush. Even Heaven has ears. 
busella. Is your blood so cold? Do you feel no 
thrill at the thought of — 

coloman. Peace! I have out-lived ambition. 
busella. And your honour. 

coloman. A man’s honour is his loyalty to his wis- 
dom. Set not your imagination upon ambition. It is 
an alchemist of dust: it has a Midas-touch. Let a 
man but once be seized by ambition and he has lost 
his soul. 

szvela claps his hands and laughs shrilly, colo- 
man and busella turn to him startled. It seems 
to be part of the game. 

Simon szvela. A fair child, a sweet child, a wise 
child ! 


18 


COLOMAN 


[ACT I, SCENE I 


He advances with the boy. busella beckons 
Stephen to her. 

busella. Come hither. You have wearied Master 
Szvela. 

SIMON szvela. Nay, madam, seldom was I more 
profitably employed . . 

Stephen. Mother, he has taught me a fine game: 
it is called “Kings and Queens”! 

busella. Come, coz. [She takes him by the hand. 
SIMON szvela stands at the entrance. As she walks 
away she says bitterly over her shoulder to coloman.] 
It is vain to speak with a dead man! 

coloman. Fare you well. 

She goes out with the boy, szvela following. 
coloman stands in deep thought. Then the doors 
of the King f s chamber open, and odev, EGUON, 
ittakar and rakovscy appear, talking in sub- 
dued tones, csaba closes the door behind them. 
At the same time Robert of ujhely enters 
swiftly with four soldiers. They proceed to 
mount guard on the steps. There is a sense of 
bustle and movement, but it does not rouse the 
BISHOP. 


C 0 L 0 M A N 


ACT I SCENE II 


SCENE II In the Bishop’s Gardens. 

A little paved close surrounded by heavy foliage and 
approached on the one side by an avenue lead- 
ing from the Cathedral cloisters , on the other 
by a flight of flagged steps to the higher reaches 
of the gardens. In the centre is a stone fish- 
pond with a fountain. 

ilona and four of her ladies enter from the avenue. 

the first lady. My lord Bishop has a pleasant 
garden . . 

ilona. A peaceful garden . . 

THE SECOND lady. Your Highness is tired. The 
Burial was sombre and wearisome. 

ilona. [ Sitting at the fountain’s edge.] We will 
rest awhile. His Grace will not grudge us this cosy 
hospitality. Come, sit round me. [ To one who kneels 
at her feet , with a lapful of lilies .] My pretty sweet- 
ing, shall you confess your dainty robbery to the 
Bishop? 

the third lady. [Archly.] He does not confess 
me . . 

the fourth lady. You think him too old for you, 
my red Rosalys! 

ilona. We are surfeited of confessions and masses 
today. I wonder if my babe be asleep ! Sweet friends, 
when you are mothers . . Come, rede me this riddle. 
How is a woman best delivered of good tidings? 

the first lady. When her unwelcome lore} rides to 
the wars . . ? 


19 


20 


COLOMAN 


[ACT I, SCENE II 


the fourth lady. And her true-lover holds her 
skein ? 

ilona. Prithee, be less subtle and more homely in 
your reasoning. If you are as unskilled in the an- 
swer as you are in the answering, it must often go 
hard with you! Draw your bows once again. ’Tis 
in the nature of a maxim. 

the second lady. One that a woman would put to 
practise? 

ilona. God help her, poor soul, if not! It is her 
only salvation i’ this world . . 

the first lady. “How is a woman best delivered 
of good tidings” . . ? 

the third lady. By a long tongue? 
ilona. By keeping her secrets . . 

Here almos enters from the avenue , accom- 
panied by NICHOLAS HUNYADY, PETER ITTAKAR 

and otto csupor. 

almos. Who talks of secrets in His Sanctity’s gar- 
den? 

CSUPOR laughs . 

ilona. I was asking a riddle, my lord. 
almos. Oho! What riddle? 

Nicholas hunyady. Propound it again, sweet 
madam. 

ilona. [ To her ladies.'] Now we’ll badger our men. 
My lords, how is a woman best delivered of good 
tidings? 

almos. Come, to it, fellows. Wits, wits, wits! 
Depend on’t, “secret” tilts in the answer . . 

ilona. Wits, wits, wits! Are you as witty as we? 
NICHOLAS HUNYADY. “How is a woman best de- 
livered of good tidings” . . ? 

almos. [Laughing.] When her delivery is secret! 
ilona. Sir, you are pleased to be merry — and 
wrong ! 

peter ittakar. I have it! Nay, there’s no “secret” 
in that . . 

Nicholas hunyady. By a secret confession? 


ACT I, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


21 


otto CSUPOR. A priest’s answer, Count Hunyady! 
Now hear a soldier’s — by keeping her secrets, madam? 

ilona. You are right, captain. But I think your 
ears were sharper than your wits. 

almos. “By keeping her secrets?” A pretty counsel 
to hear from your pretty lips! Secrets — you? Have 
you secrets, my pretty plover? 

ilona. [Rising.] I keep but one from you — the 
secret which every wife should keep from her husband. 
[To her ladies .] Hear me, O ye, my maids! You are 
sitting at the feet of Gamaliel . . 

almos. Well! What is this marvellous secret which 
every wife should keep from her husband? 

ilona. [Chucking him beneath the chin.] How 
much exactly she loves him. We do not like you too 
conceited — or too jealous. Come, my dears, you have 
learnt the wisdom of a wife: now learn that of a 
mother. I want to hug baby Bela! 

Wake, baby, tho> your head 
Is wreathed in dreams . . 

She ascends the steps with her ladies, halts at 
the topmost to laugh back at almos, and is 
gone. 

otto CSUPOR. Your Queen is shrewd, my lord. 
almos. So she be not a shrew, I care not! 

Nicholas hunyady. A witty woman often sees 
further than she talks. Well, this little “court of 
love” has lightened the gloom of King Ladislaus’ 
burial . . 

otto CSUPOR. And the haughty dominance of these 
priests — saving your brother, Sire. 
almos. [Moodily.] He, too, is haughty. 

Nicholas hunyady. These great thinkers are al- 
ways haughty. 

almos. What has my brother done with all his great 
thinking? Pestilent swelled-brain ! He slights me: I 
feel it. 

peter ittakar. The Virgin forbid! 


22 


COLOMAN 


[ACT I, SCENE II 


almos. I have walked with him in this very 
garden . . and he has been King, not I! 

otto csupor. Then you have remarked his ambition? 
almos. Ha, and certain of my courtiers foster it 
by their obsequience. 

otto csupor. By more than their obsequience. I 
have told you what passed on the night of the King’s 
death. [To ittakar.] You were present . . 

peter ittakar. I heard nothing, but ’twas in the air. 
almos. Who were for him? 

otto csupor. Young Rakovscy and my old lord 
Kguon. They are the most formidable. 

peter ittakar. And they wield much money. 
almos. Well, ’tis no matter. I have scotched it. I 
am cleverer than my brother credits. 

NICHOLAS HUNYADY. What measure, Sire, have you 
taken? 

almos. I have a plan to humble this great thinker, 
this schemer, before all Hungary. When he has done 
my bidding there will be an end to his kingly pre- 
tences ! 

otto csupor. What bidding? 

almos. Tush . . Trust in the Lord’s Anointed. It 
is a politic jest. I have contrived it with the Arch- 
bishop of Gran. 

peter ittakar. Here he comes from the Cathedral 
and Bishop Coloman with him. 

almos. God’s body, then let us go ! Faugh — I 
can scent them from here. Let us leave them to their 
episcopalities ! Come, sup with me. 

They go up the steps. There is a moment's 
silence; then voices are heard approaching and 
coloman, followed by the archbishop of gran 
leaning on John csaba, emerges from the avenue. 
aladar maroty follows respectfully. He carries 
certain of the archbishop’s appurtenances. 
coloman. I love my garden. It is terraced to the 
sun . . Yonder lies the Palace; there I have lodged 
you. 


ACT I, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


23 


the archbishop. As you love me, a moment. I 
hate your burial services, and a Saint’s is worse than 
a Christian’s. They pray twice as long for ’em. [ He 
seats himself on the rim of the fountain.'] Mother o’ 
God, my knees . . There was a clamminess i’ the 
church has seized my limbs. [Turning a roguish eye 
on csaba.] Saw you the wench who knelt under the 
organ-loft? 

JOHN CSABA. No, my lord. 

the archbishop. A gipsy, by J esu ! A brown wench 
with a white bosom . . [To aladar maroty.] Saw 
you not her? 

aladar maroty. Nor I, my lord. 
the archbishop. Ah, you are little more than a 
novice. When I was a young priest . . 

coloman. [Smiling.] It is said that you became 
licentiate at an earlier age, than most, my lord. 

the archbishop. [Eyeing him sharply.] Eh? Oh, 
ay. [Crossing himself and mumbling rapidly.] Ad 
te levavi oculos meos: qui habitas in coelis . . There 
is scholarship in all things. 

JOHN csaba. Concerning this matter, my lords — 
[To aladar.] Walk apart. 

the archbishop. This business of the King’s crown- 
ing — yes, yes! Is the day bespoken? 
coloman. This day se’nnight. 
the archbishop. And the ritual — will it be ac- 
cording to the Roll of Saint Ladislaus’ crowning? We 
must have a rehearsal. I am shaky in my Latin. But 
let it not be Thursday. She is too . . I am in the 
confessional o’ Thursday. 

coloman. It shall be appointed in closet with the 
Chancellor, my honoured lord. [Wearily.] How close 
the dusk seems! [He lays his hand on the masonry.] 
The stone burns . . 

the archbishop. Now, my children, touching the 
new reign, will King Almos prove a dutiful son to 
the Holy Church? She has a body terrestrial as well 
as a body celestial. 


24 


COLOMAN 


[ACT I, SCENE II 


coloman. [ Dipping his hand in the pond.'] Strange, 
that restless water should be so restful! 
the archbishop. [ To csaba.] He hears me not . . 
coloman. There were once carp in this fountain, 
my lord — something killed them. Their bodies lit- 
tered the basin as with silver. Have no doubts of my 
brother. Crown him in all confidence. The gardener 
told me ’twas a water-snake, hidden . . hidden deep. 
Crown Almos in all confidence, good my lord. Mark 
me, I bade you do it! 

the archbishop. The King spoke as ’twere his wish 
that you, his brother, should crown him. 
coloman. I? The crown of Hungary! 
the archbishop. As is most natural and politic. 
coloman. [ Walking up and down.] No, no, no, 
no . . The crown in my hands? 

the archbishop. Yet consider, Prince Coloman, it 
would serve to proclaim your love for the King. 
coloman. Did I not bid them love the King? 

THE ARCHBISHOP. That was well done. Let your 
brotherly love continue. 

coloman. It is not my province, my lord Arch- 
bishop — 

the archbishop. Well, for my part, I would fain 
be rid of it. I grow infirm . . 

coloman. Nor is it my humour. Tell the King I 
shrink from this. 

John csaba. Is that wise, my lord? 
coloman. No more. Tell the King, I say. I will 
not do it. Do not misunderstand me. I am my brother’s 
loyal servant, but this moves me too far. 
the ARCHBISHOP. So slender a whim . . 
coloman. Sirs, I am determined. Do not press me 
further. 

aladar maroty. [ Coming forward.] My lords, a 
message from the King. 

coloman. Who bears the message? 

aladar maroty. One presently from the Court — 
Master Simon Szvela. 


ACT I, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


25 


szvela appears at the head of the steps and 
comes down. He kneels before the archbishop, 
who raises his hand in blessing. 

THE ARCHBISHOP. [ To csaba.] A face like Judas! 
[Aloud.] Our Lady smile upon you, fair son. What 
is it? 

SIMON SZVELA. [Rising.] Most Holy Father, I am 
bidden entreat you to the King. He would consult 
you anent the investiture before you sup. 

the archbishop. Pox upon it! Authority is so 
new a toy to a young monarch — he gives no peace 
to his nurses! [To csaba.] Your arm, father. [To 
a.ladar maroty.] Help me up, son. I wane too 
swiftly for these crownings . . We will lose no time 
in waiting upon the King’s sweet pleasure. My nose 
has prophesied me broiled trout for supper. [To 
COLOMAN.] Send me your tidings anon. 

COLOMAN. Kiss the King’s hands for me, my lord. 
I bear him all fealty. 

the archbishop. Hm . . Christ be with you. 

csaba and aladar maroty help the old man up 
the steps and they disappear, coloman remains 
by the fountain, idly toying with the water. 
coloman. She called me dead. Then the dead 
dream . . 

simon szvela. [, Suddenly.] What if they should 
be raised from the dead? 
coloman. Who is that? 
simon szvela. Another dead man. 
coloman. [Half angry, half amused.] What has 
wrought your death, Master Szvela? 

simon szvela. That which wrought yours, my lord. 
The being robbed by the King. He has filched my 
livelihood. I met him by the gates. I am no longer 
choirmaster. 

coloman. I am sorry at it. Unfeignedly, for we 
have of late been a little thrown together, and have 
conversed upon occasion. [Smiling.] Is it the sing- 


26 


COLOMAN [act i, scene ii 


ing? My brother has a delicate ear — and a rough 
hand . . 

simon szvela. Yet he has a wonderful clemency. I 
am not to be whipped in that I cannot smithy the 
boys’ throats to his liking, or turn a potter of night- 
ingales! [ Breaking into a merry catch.] But if 
bread is black, the girls are white . . 

coloman. Does this mean so little to you? 
simon szvela. As little, my lord, as a flood to a 
waterfowl. I bear myself after the manner of my 
betters. 

coloman. Since when were your betters waterfowl? 
simon szvela. Since the eagle grew afraid o’ the 
sun . . 

coloman. [His face darkening .] Lie fallow . . 
simon szvela. I am a fool, Prince. Humility only 
becomes the wise. 

coloman. A fool to his folly! 
simon szvela. And a wise man to his fool . . 
coloman. You stumble on strange meanings. 
simon szvela. My lord, I am fain to perform a 
miracle. 

coloman. You — a miracle? 

simon szvela. The raising of a man from the dead. 
coloman. [After a moment’s pause.] If you have 
said all, you have said too much, if you have said but 
half you have said too little. Sit you down — there. 

SIMON szvela. [Perching himself on the fountain’s 
rim and leaning across to coloman, speaking with 
extraordinary intensity.] Who made you your 
brother’s servant? 

coloman. My mother. 

simon szvela. The Arpads count their race from 
their sires! Was not William of England a bastard? 

coloman. 0 Wormwood Star! Would you have me 
become King? 

simon szvela. [Seizing his hand and kissing it.] 
My lord, I love you . . 

coloman. [Good-humouredly pinching szvela’s ear.] 


ACT I, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


27 


I think not. No man loves me. Were you a woman . . 
She loved me. 

simon szvela. She, too, would have you King. 

coloman. She . . ? 

simon szvela. She is mindful of her indignity. 
How these ladies exalt their proprieties ! Is it a 
light task for a woman of her pride to forego a hus- 
band and a crown? 

coloman. [ Scarcely audibly.'] Ah, Busella! [With 
a hard laugh.] She recks more of the crown than the 
husband. 

simon szvela. Or mayhap it is the mother in her. 
Holy Father, what of your son? 

coloman. He will thank me for having spared him 
the haunting imminence of kingship. Our desolate 
vigils are a disease: they palsy us. This will not 
lure me. Such bait is grown stale on the hook. You 
must catch me while you have me beguiled . . for I 
sway with the stream. 

simon szvela. Then I must thread on a live worm. 
How does Hungary sit solitary, waiting for her lord! 
She is clay for a great fashioner. There is room for 
a Caesar in her annals. Caesar — Coloman . . 

coloman. Conquest — destiny ! 

simon szvela. Now wakes the man of action. Will 
you ever comfortably sing Mass again? Behold Hun- 
gary! What she is, what she will be, what she might 
be. She is . . weakening in the midst of nations 
gathering strength. She will be . . their soft plunder 
beneath your drunken brother. She might be . . what 
you alone can make her. My lord Bishop, I, too, have 
my text and my sermon. 

coloman. Retro me, Satanas. What have you been 
paid for this? 

simon szvela. Nothing — yet. I shall ask my 
monies of King Coloman — when I am his Chancellor. 
Now am I but a dispossessed lackey, a dull reed . . 
yet one that pipes for half the Court. Whither turns 
grey Eguon’s mind, whither Odev’s and Rakovscy’s? 


28 


COLOMAN [act i, scene ii 


To you — Bookish Coloman! To whom does John 
Csaba pray o’ nights? Not to God — but to his eccles- 
iastical superior. Have you not marked these men 
tvinee when Almos has girded at you? Apple of ashes! 
With such buttresses to your prop will you let this 
braggart-bibber ride roughshod over you? I have 
spun a plan . . 

coloman. [ Stopping him with a gesture .] Master 
Szvela, I had a horse caught in a quicksand. I watched 
him struggling — as you are watching me. But he 
freed himself. Get you gone. 

simon szvela. [Abruptly, with a fantastic bow.] I 
am snuffed out. [He makes as if to withdraw, then 
stops with a sidelong glance at the bishop.] What of 
your mistress? 

coloman. [Slowly.] You omnipotent devil . . [A 
pause, then eagerly.] What of her? 

simon szvela. She would have her love set high. 
Love is always for the height . . 

coloman. How much do you know of — us? 
simon szvela. Enough to be your pander. 
coloman. How came you by your knowledge? 
simon szvela. I threw a casual javelin into the 
dark . . 

coloman. You parry me! Have you guessed this? 
simon szvela. I have flown my falcons . . my eyes. 
coloman. You have seen — what? Does love so 
change a man that others . . 

simon szvela. May plumb his passion? O Sir, the 
hue o’ the lips, the hand plucking at the vest, the 
secret fond smile at matins . . 

coloman. Have you watched me so narrowly? 
simon szvela. Yea and again yea. And she . . 
coloman. 0 Heaven and Earth! How near have 
you been to her? 

simon szvela. I am her ambassador. She bids you 
aspire. 

coloman. Comes this lately from her? 
simon szvela. Ay, my lord. Since you saw her. 


act i, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


29 


coloman. Where have you seen her? When and 
how? Oh, that I had . . 

Simon szvela. Then you have not seen her so 
lately? 

coloman. I have not seen her . . my heart does not 
know how long — how long! [Turning on him sharply .] 
You know so much — yet know not that? 

SIMON SZVELA. I do know it. 

coloman. You have had speech with her? 

simon szvela. I am her ambassador . . 

COLOMAN. You privileged mountebank . . Divulge 
her to me. 

Simon szvela. She will divulge herself to the 
King — not to the Bishop. 

coloman. [Keenly.'] That was her message? 

simon szvela. Such is my deliverance. 

coloman. O Madonna! You have seen her face un- 
veiled? You have heard her voice? 

SIMON SZVELA. My lord . . 

coloman. That you have heard her voice and I have 
only known her whisper! That you have seen her 
face, and I — never ! O subtle harlot ! Tell me, how 
looks she in the sun? Is her hair full and braided? 
What do men call her? Come, answer me, good fellow, 
what is her name? 

simon szvela. She will not divulge it — to the 
Bishop. 

coloman. And yet — if I make myself King she 
will come to me again! Openly, openly — not as then, 
by furtive chance . . I met her first in the dark lanes 
beyond the city when I was returning lonely and from 
a lonely shrine. There was no moon and she was 
hooded. We never came together but in darkness. 
How her hands allured ! And her breath — God, God, 
God! I knew not who she was: she would only tell 
me what she was. But she knew me, for she cried 
on me by name in her kisses. 0 hot whisperings! O 
dear whisperings! We came together — how seldom! 
And then she slipt away from me . . I have stolen 


30 


COLOMAN [act i, scene ii 


out, night upon night, to the familiar spot — but she 
has not come. She never came . . And now a year 
is gone and I am no whit nearer her — unless I pin- 
nacle myself. How may I find her? Come, sirrah, 
answer me — or I will have you racked. I will draw 
her name from every sinew of you. 

simon szvela. I am not a coward. You will get 
nothing that way. 

COLOMAN. You shame me. I did forget my philoso- 
phy. Sweet knave, tell me how I may find her? 
simon szvela. Bishop Coloman, become King. 
COLOMAN. [ Quietly , almost menacingly — his face 

close to szvela’s.] Your fang is in my heel, O serpent: 
beware lest I bruise your head. [Turning away, ab- 
sorbed.'] I am as a swimmer nearing that great ninth 
wave which breaks, but cannot be broken. [Rousing 
himself with a shudder.] It is grown dark and cold . . 
simon szvela. It is nightfall. 

The tension is broken by Stephen, who enters 
carrying a book. He is crying quietly. 
coloman. A little boy . . 
simon szvela. Your son. 

coloman. Why, villain, what make you here? You 
should be abed. What, tears? 

He takes him between his knees, fondling him. 
Stephen. They stole my hobby-horse and, when I 
asked for it, they told me to tell my father and 
laughed — it seemed at you. 
coloman. Who stole your toy? 

Stephen. Uncle Almos’ pages. 

coloman. This — by a King’s cullions to a King’s 
grandson! Oh, this is vile! 

simon szvela. King’s men and King — thieves all! 
Stephen. They are always stealing my playthings 
and cuffing me, and they call me No-Man’s son. Who 
is No-Man? 

simon szvela. A man who is not a King. 

Stephen. Then everybody is No-Man but Uncle 
Almos. 


ACT I, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


31 


COLOMAN. Hm . . What book have you got there? 
STEPHEN. My Virgil. 

coloman. Have you not yet conned your lesson for 
Father Csaba? 

Stephen. This is not my lesson. I want to take 
the lots before I go to bed. Mother has told me all 
about the Virgil lots. You open at chance and what- 
ever you touch first with your finger will tell you what 
you most want to know. 

coloman. What do you most want to know? 
Stephen. About No-Man. See, if I put my finger 
in now you can read it for me. I am not clever yet. 

simon szvela. {In a low tone to coloman.] 0 No- 
Man, heed the No-Man’s lot . . 
coloman. So be it! 

Stephen. Here, father — I have it ! “O nate, 
ingentem luctum ne quaere tuorum.” “0 nate” — “ 0 
son . . ” Finish it for me. 

coloman. “Seek not the great sorrow of thy race.” 
There is a long pause. The faces of the two men 
mirror their thoughts. The hoy looks up 

wonderingly at his father. 

Stephen. What is the matter, father? Your face 
is so cruel . . 

In the silence the clank of armed men is heard 
approaching. Then almos enters, coming 
quickly down the steps, accompanied by otto 
csupor and Robert of ujhely with six of the 
King’s bodyguard, four of whom bear lighted 
torches. 

almos. You tarry late in your garden tonight, 
brother. 

coloman. One forgets time in a garden, my lord. 
almos. What is this the Archbishop tells me? That 
you will not pleasure my wish and crown me King? 

coloman. Sir, I beseech you, release me from this 
service. 

almos. By God, Bishop, but I will not! 
coloman. Almos ! 


32 


COLOMAN [act i, scene ii 


almos. Coloman! This is a matter of grave policy. 
And it shall be to my device, thus. Men have spoken 
too much of you as my rival — false speaking, brother, 
which I myself will not believe. Still, they speak: 
and their tongues must be stopped. This is the pith 
of the business. If, with your own hands, you crown 
me, you yourself silence this treason against us. The 
Archbishop importuned you as my emissary. He smelt 
disaffection in your answer. Do you set pride above 
peace? 

coloman. I bade the Archbishop kiss your hands. 
almos. Privy loyalty — when I would have your 
public homage! Where learned you this intimate re- 
gard which does not venture out o’ doors? 

coloman. When we were playfellows, and I bore 
you on my back . . 

almos. A King can have no elder brother. And 
he who is not a King is a subject. Take that to your 
bosom, bookish coz. Come what may, I will be crowned 
at your hands. I am fixed on’t. Bear me this once 
more and then, if you will, dwindle to winter among 
your herbs and parchments. 

coloman. It is not my bookishness that denies you. 
almos. God’s body, then, what is it? 
coloman. I will not do it. 

ALMOS. Not? — 

coloman. Not though an emissary from God were 
to bid me! 

almos. [ Furiously .] Bastard bishop — ! 

He half draws his sword. Stephen runs to him 
and clings to his knees. 

Stephen. O uncle, be not angered — 
almos. [ Striking him.] Bishop’s bastard! \The 
men laugh.] This is a council of disaffection. We have 
surprised them in the nick. Look you, Sirs, where 
struts your would-be King — son of a lewd slave — 
and his son, who is likewise no son, with their High 
Chancellor — a starveling vagabond! How? Leer 
you and bow you at me, rascal? God’s body, this 


ACT I, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


33 


must be crushed ere it spread. I’ll have this beggars’ 
senate know that I am master of life and death in 
Hungary. The worms i’ the earth will turn rebels, 
else, and topple our palaces! Csupor — 

COLOMAN. No, my lord. This is the way to breed 
conspiracy, not to quell it. I am an honest man: and 
he is disordered who believes me otherwise. [. Falling 
on one knee in an attitude of reverence .] See, I kiss 
your hand in all homage. I had not enough considered 
of this matter. I will do your bidding. I will crown 
you . . so you give me leave. 

almos. [ Pausing , taken aback, then brusquely.'] 
Then see to it! [To csupor.] How quickly I bent 
him! 

He goes out, through the avenue, with his fol- 
lowers. The men smile contemptuously at the 
kneeling bishop. There is a long pause. 
COLOMAN. Have you seen this, O God of the Stars? 
He rises to his feet. His face is set and stern, 
but a curious smile plays about the lips. 

SIMON szvela. The King’s torches have out-fired the 
stars . . 

coloman bends over Stephen, who leans by the 
fountain-rim weeping bitterly. 

COLOMAN. Do not cry. I will get back your toy. 
[ Then he turns abruptly to szvela, gripping him firmly 
by the wrists as he looks intensely into his face.] You 
have a plan. What is it? 

So they stand; behind them the starlight flashes 
1 in the fountain. 


C O L O M A N 


ACT II 


SCENE: The Cathedral at Pesth. 

A lofty and immense interior. At the far east end is 
the high altar , at which several priests — among 
them aladar maroty — are busied. Looking 
towards this , the principal entrance is on the 
left. Below it is a small door leading , by turret 
stairs , to the belfry. On the right are three 
doors giving , in turn , access to the cloisters , the 
chapter-house , and the Bishop’s palace. The 
lowest is the cloister-door. On either side of 
the nave is a row of huge round stone pillars. A 
serial of steps leads to the chancel: beyond, 
another, to the altar. The chancel is splendid 
with emblazonry. The floor and walls of the 
Cathedral are chequered with diapered light 
shed from many ogives. The altar is hung with 
cloth of gold. The deep throb of bells can be 
heard, dominating the confused murmur of a 
crowd without. 

JOHN csaba and otto csupor emerge from the chapter- 
house in deep conversation. The former is in 
full vestments, the latter in mail with a scarlet 
cloak. 

JOHN csaba. . . so much upon the order of pre- 
cedence. [ They pause.] This aisle is for the Court: 
that for the people. 


34 


ACT II] 


COLOMAN 


35 


OTTO csupor. And the apse? 

JOHN csaba. That also for the people. 
otto csupor. By God, a fair favour to the dogs! 
JOHN csaba. The Prince-Bishop commands that his 
flock shall have full liberty of entrance. 

otto csupor. And the magistrates and burgesses 
. . ? Does the Bishop separate the sheep from the 
goats? 

JOHN csaba. We are all equal before God, my son. 
otto csupor. Yet the Court . . 

JOHN csaba. [With a smile.'] Birds of golden spurs 
flock together. Is there more? 

otto csupor. Nothing. I’ll deliver these disposi- 
tions to my ancient. 

JOHN csaba. Bid him keep the doors of the church 
fast till I send word. 

otto csupor. It shall be so . . 

He goes out through the main door. The people 
without acclaim him. Then a man-at-arms 
closes the door, csaba turns to aladar maroty 
who, during the foregoing conversation , has 
come down the nave bearing a silver ewer of 
holy water from which he is filling a small basin 
hewn out of one of the foremost pillars. About 
this time the bell ceases. 

John csaba. Is all ready? 

aladar maroty. All, father, save the Blessed Oil. 
JOHN csaba. The Archbishop will bear that. 
aladar maroty. And not my lord Coloman? Surely 
the Roll of Service . . 

JOHN csaba. It is altered. His portion is the crown. 
Such was the royal bidding. Had you speech with 
him this morning? 

aladar maroty. A word only. He was cold and 
moody. 

JOHN csaba. Legion must be the conceits of a 
mortal on the eve of Kingship! 

aladar maroty. Speak you of the Bishop? 
john csaba. I have said. 


36 


COLOMAN 


[act ii 


As they exchange a deep glance, simon szvela 
enters hastily from the chapter-house. He 
plucks csaba by the sleeve, 
simon szvela. They are in the cloisters, if . . 
[Seeing aladar and drawing back.] A friend? 

john csaba. He will be with us . . will you not? 
With the Church to the death? 

aladar maroty. [Fervently.] To the death, father. 
JOHN csaba. It is well: today will see her exalta- 
tion. Send out those priests: bid them robe immedi- 
ately. 

aladar goes up and dismisses the priests, who 
retire through a door at the back of the altar. 
JOHN csaba. Whom have we in the King’s body- 
guard? 

simon szvela. Every second man. 

JOHN csaba. And they carry opportune arms? 
simon szvela. Italian daggers . . dipped. When I 
cry “treason,” each stabs his neighbour. That begins it. 

JOHN csaba. Good. The righteousness of our cause 
shall be baptized in the blood of our enemies. 

aladar has returned, and stands gazing with 
clasped hands before a lighted window. 
aladar maroty. The saints are shining out of 
Heaven ! 

simon szvela. Upon our holy shambles. Come, let 
us gather our two or three together . . 

He unbars the lowest door to the right and 
admits GABRIEL EGUON, GUYON RAKOVSCY and 
Matthias odev. They come forward and he 
bolts the door behind them, afterwards leaning 
apart against a pillar, watching them. 

JOHN csaba. Pax Dei vobiscum. [They cross them- 
selves.] None saw you? 

GABRIEL EGUON. [Grimly.] This is not my first 
conspiracy. Is the King at hand? 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Our King! 

aladar maroty. [Ecstatically.] A Churchman — 
King! 


ACT II ] 


COLOMAN 


37 


MATTHIAS ODEV. That is upon the issue. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. How . . 

JOHN csaba. Now is the race to the swift. Abide 
you here, my lords. 

He goes out by the upper door to the right. 

guyon rakovscy. [ To odev.] How can you question 
the issue? 

Matthias odev. I have been too often darkly smit- 
ten by chance. 

Gabriel eguon. That should buckler your spirit 
the more. 

Matthias odev. My spirit needs no buckler, as you 
well know, Gabriel Eguon. But this touches me more 
nearly than it touches you — any of you ! You honour 
Coloman. I love him. 

GUYON rakovscy. I love him, too! 

MATTHIAS ODEV. Keep faithful — keep faithful . . 
only. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. May I die for him! 

Gabriel eguon. We are making a mighty King — 
a warrior, a statesman, and a priest . . a very David! 

aladar maroty. A man after the heart of God. 

Matthias odev. As a man, ay. But . . 

SIMON szvela. Hist! The King! 

coloman, in full Bishop y s robes, enters from the 
palace door, followed by csaba. The others make 
silent obeisance. 

coloman. Now, my lords, my friends — this is 
behest and benediction in one: my last office as God’s 
priest, my first as your King. Mark you well this 
Cathedral. Yonder the main door . . that is to you, 
Eguon. Post your body esquires in that part of the 
crowd nearest that door; so that those who enter can- 
not leave. You, Matthias, to you these three doors; 
this nearest is to the cloisters: yon, in the centre, to 
the chapter-house: and that small archway, in the 
deep shadow of the pillar, leads to my palace. The 
Court will throng this aisle. Therefore station your 
men without. At the first cries, let them enter . . 


38 


COLOMAN 


[act ii 


[ To rakovscy.] Hark you, my oak-sired sapling. I 
have an hundred Venetian mercenaries, private in my 
palace. [ Giving him a ring.'] Take this, and with it 
their command. Keep the narrow approaches, the 
conduits to the Cathedral. Should my brother or any 
of his party break through us here, fall upon them. 
You, fathers, hold fast the door behind the altar. To 
you I commend the priesthood. You will have little 
difficulty. [ To SZVELA.] Your work, contriver, is but 
the performance of your invention. Our induction is 
perfected between us. 

Matthias odev. And the women . . the Queen and 
her ladies? They will be in the Cathedral. 

COLOMAN. They are neither dangerous nor of use. 
Let them but be quiet. 

JOHN CSABA. Time draws on, my lord. 

COLOMAN. Then thus . . [He holds up his right 
hand and they all kneel.] The God of Samson and of 
the Maccabees, the Stablisher of strength and liberty, 
be with you and prosper you, in token of Whose 
Presence I sign you severally by this cross. 

He stoops and makes the sign of the cross upon 
each forehead. 

ALL. Amen. 

As they rise , the hells break out anew in a loud , 
joyful peal. 

JOHN csaba. The King has left the Palace . . 

Gabriel eguon. Then break we off. 

JOHN CSABA. [To ALADAR maroty.] When we are 
dispersed, see to the opening of the doors. 

coloman. To our destinies! 

In turn each kisses his hand. There is a move- 
ment of departure, csaba advances to the palace 
archway: eguon and rakovscy to the chapter- 
house door. 

GUYON rakovscy. My sword’s majority! 

Gabriel eguon. I remember when I first fleshed my 
weapon . . 

They go out. 


ACT II] 


COLOMAN 


39 


Matthias odev. [ Looking at coloman fixedly, in a 
low voice.] O Coloman . . 

coloman, who has raised his hand to lay it 
tenderly on the old man’s shoulder , drops it 
haughtily and, turning quickly, goes out through 
the upper door followed by csaba. odev leaves 
in the wake of the others, bowed and thoughtful. 
szvela remains, leaning idly against his pillar. 
He produces a red apple, which he munches. 
aladar maroty opens the main doors of the 
Cathedral and several men-at-arms enter. The 
people surge up the steps outside and Robert 
of tjjhely is seen thrusting them down, aladar 
retires behind the altar. 

Robert of ujhely. Back, you lice! [ Several spear- 
men bar the entrance behind him and he comes for- 
ward, addressing the men-at-arms .] To your posts. 
[Some line up from pillar to pillar with linked lances, 
others stand guard by the southern doors. He points 
to the cloister entrance .] Unbolt that door. [Seeing 
szvela.] Ha, choirmaster! What’s your business . . ? 

SIMON szvela. I am turned philosopher. The 
parade of industry amuses me. 

Robert of ujhely. [With a sneer.] ’Tis the one 
occupation they have left you, is it not? [To the men 
at the main doors.] Let them in. 

simon szvela. Oh, my apple has a very sweet core 
. . even now. 

The crowd pours in through the open doorway, 
flooding the left aisle and part of the apse. 
It is formed of both sexes and all stations of 
life. There is much jostling and laughter and 
interchange of pleasantries. Followers of the 
various nobles mix with the populace. 
a miller. God, what a mill ’twould make! 
else, his daughter. Hush, father . . 

A merchant. [To his wife.] See those fat candles. 
[Tapping his pocket.] They have fatted me to fifty 
crowns . . 


40 


COLOMAN 


[act ii 


anna. [ An elderly woman.] That door's to the 
belfry . . 

an old woman. Is Feth up at the bells now? 
anna. Yea, our keen King has made him master- 
bellringer! He scents a skilled man . . Feth will 
make the bells shout today. [ Swaying her body from 
side to side.] Almos — Almos — Almos! 

A courtesan. Drawing water, dame? 

A laugh follows. 

anna. [Stepping aside , spitting.] Harlot! 
a magistrate’s wife. [To her husband.] Why are 
we not shewn better precedence? 

the magistrate. Look, yonder comes an acolyte . . 
his wife. [Glancing at anna and the courtesan.] 
Why should I rub shoulders with these? 

simon szvela. [With a low bow.] Good madam, 
touch them not. Even they be sensitive to vermin. 

the courtesan. [Engagingly.] Look into my eyes. 
You will find your fortune in them. 

simon szvela. No, fair . . but I see yours. 

THE courtesan. [Pouting.] What of my lips? 
simon szvela. Two Graces — turned Fates. 

He passes her by. 

the old woman. . . and your son? 
anna. Still love-mad. [Indicating else.] There 
she goes, proud witch! Sergei-Michael will come to 
wreck with her. 

the miller. If I had this for a store house, I should 
grow rich in a winter! 

else. Father, old Anna is speaking of us. How evil 
she looks! 

She crosses herself. 

LUDOVIC. [A young man, standing by her.] You will 
never marry Sergei-Michael . . 

else. I think not . . 

sergei-michael. [Bursting from the crowd.] Nor 
will she you, Tawdry! 

anna. [Crying out.] Sergei-Michael ! 


ACT II] 


COLOMAN 


41 


LUDOVic. [ Striking him in the face.] A mask for 
your mazzard! 

the miller. [ Coming between them.] Be quiet, 
lads! Respect God’s house . . 

SERGEI-MICHAEL. God’s mill — ! 
anna pulls him aside. 

ROBERT of ujhely. Peace, beyond there! 

A TANNER. [To a WOOL-DYER.] Mark you, Sir, how 
my lord Eguon’s men group together? 

THE WOOL-DYER. Ay, by the doors. A gay patch 
of green. He is a good friend to me. Yon is my best 
dyed ticking . . 

the tanner. And to me. I tan for him. 

THE WOOL-DYER. So, friend? Then we dip in the 
same pot. 

They shake hands. 

simon szvela. True trafficking will risk a burned 
thumb for a goodly morsel . . [ They turn to him.] 

The bark that tans leather also dyes wool. Be armed 
for your opportunity . . [He passes on: to another.] 
Does trade prosper with you, Master Armourer? 
Which forge you the more — the husk, or the bodkin 
that sticks the kernel? 

the armourer. [Laughing .] I thrive by the melee, 
friend, and when I laugh do many weep. An armour- 
er’s face is the land’s shibboleth. 

SIMON SZVELA. And you . . laugh . . 

The bells have stopped. Feth appears at the 
belfry door , wiping his hands. 

simon szvela. Hail, master-bellringer! [ Mimick- 

ing Anna.] Almos — Almos — Almos! 

The crowd laughs. 

feth. [As if pulling a rope.] Who’s-a . . plucked- 
crow . . Si-mon . . Szve-la! 

The laughter goes against szvela. 

simon szvela. One that will clean your chaps after 
death — 

THE magistrate’s wife. An ugly carrion . . 


42 


COLOMAN 


[act ii 


simon szvela. And will fashion my lady a waisted 
figure ! 

the magistrate’s wife. [ To her husband .] Will 

you suffer it? 

the magistrate. Hush. The Court is coming in . . 
szvela laughs softly and moves aside. The 
Court begins to issue from the cloisters and 
\ occupy the southern aisle. Acolytes have entered 

from behind the altar and parade the Cathedral , 
swinging their censers. 

the merchant. [ To his wife.] Do you snuff the 
incense? They are burning benzoin from Syria that 
I procured on my last journey. It was wondrous 
precious ! 

anna. [To feth.] Sergei-Michael has disgraced us 
again with his love-brawling. 

sergei-michael. He was wooing her and they 
laughed at me . . 

feth. Ludovic, the huntsman, and Else? Pooh! 
How often have I told you she is monied? Could you 
buy her? [ To anna.] Have we not pealed bravely? 
The King will be well pleased today with his ringers! 

THE wool-dyer. There’s old Ittakar. How he 
mouths with his thin lips . . 

the armourer. They call him Ferret Ittakar. But 
the King wears him in his bosom. 

simon szvela. That he may the better squeeze him. 
the tanner. A wizened wild-plum . . Look, my 
lord Eguon is grave. 

the armourer. Some say he is no true King’s man. 
the wool-dyer. He would have favoured Prince 
Coloman had he bid for the Kingship. 

the tanner. That was never more than kitchen 
talk! 

simon szvela. Yet the Prince-Bishop is a great 
man . . 

the armourer. Were you one of his’n? 

simon szvela. I? [Spitting.] A pox o’ traitors! 

else. Who is that old man? There — by the pillar. 


ACT II ] 


COLOMAN 


43 


LUDOVIC. Count Odev. 
else. How sad he looks! 

ludovic. Men name him “the good Count.” He it 
was who fed his poor through the great famine. 
else. Why is he so sad? 

ludovic. Perhaps he is sorrowing for one he loves . . 
the miller. . . King Almos is a well-favoured, 
merry gentleman! 

THE magistrate’s wife. But he must mend his go- 
ings and doings . . 

the miller. Yes, indeed, mistress. [ Over his 
shoulder , to the courtesan.] Where’s your Amen to 
that? 

the courtesan. In her husband’s infirmity. 
the magistrate. Here come the priests. 
simon szvela. All the priests in the world ’ll not 
mend that . . eh, fair? 

From the chapter-house emerges a procession 
of ecclesiastics bearing banners and crosses , and 
chanting. They advance to the chancel where 
they range themselves and kneel, still chanting. 
The crowd becomes more subdued, feth hur- 
ries away up the belfrey-stairs. 
the priests. Rorate coeli desuper, et nubes pluant 
justum; aperiatur terra, et germinat Salvatorem . . 
the magistrate’s wife. The brothers of Our Lord! 
THE MAGISTRATE. Not SO loud . . 
else. How solemn it is! Who is that stately lady 
in the black robe? 

ludovic. She holding the boy by the hand? She was 
Bishop Coloman’s wife . . 
else. Was? 

ludovic. When he turned priest she became no-man’s 
wife. 

else. Alas . . She looks like a wax Madonna, 
frozen. 

the priests. Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei; et opera 
manum ejus annuntiat firmamentum . . 

An almoner enters carrying a huge cross. He is 


44 


COLOMAN 


[act ii 


followed by a second body of acolytes and then 
the chaplains of the archbishop of gran and the 
PRINCE-BISHOP OF ZAGRAB: then ALADAR MAROTY 
bearing the King’s sword precedes JOHN csaba. 
After them come four acolytes supporting a 
canopy beneath which walk the archbishop and 
COLOMAN, level. The archbishop carries a gol- 
den horn of oil , and coloman the crown on a rich 
napkin in a paten. They proceed formally to 
the altar. Absolute silence prevails for a while 
in the crowd. The scene is a strange mixture 
of Norman simplicity and Asiatic splendour. 
Then a short, sharp peal of bells chimes with a 
fanfare of trumpets outside. 
the priests. Sacerdotes Dei benedicite Dominum; 
sancti et humiles corde laudate Deum . . Kyrie 
eleison. Kyrie eleison. Kyrie eleison. 

the people. Christe eleison. Christe eleison. 
Christe eleison. 

the priests. Kyrie eleison. Kyrie eleison. Kyrie 
eleison . . 

Here there is a stir among those round the main 
doors. The royal train enters: almos and his 
immediate esquires, with otto CSUPOR and 
NICHOLAS HUNYADY, and ilona and her ladies, 
one of whom holds bela in her arms. The train 
halts in the Chancel. The women kneel, the men 
stand. The bells cease, and feth returns. 
many in the crowd. [Murmuring .] The King . . 
the King . . 

the armourer. He bears himself more kingly than 
I had hoped. 

the miller. A gracious company! 
else. The Queen is comely. Her hair is like roped 
bronze. How terrible my lady Busella looks! Black 
as a Magyar gipsy . . 

Ritual is performed about the altar: then the 
archbishop comes forward with extended hands. 
the archbishop. Indulgentiam, absolutionem, et 


ACT II ] 


COLOMAN 


45 


remissionem . . um . . um . . um . . omnipotens et 
misericors Dominus. 

simon szvela. How the old rogue trips in’s Latin! 
Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of the old 
Adam! 

SEVERAL NEAR him. Peace, villain . . 
the archbishop. Dominus vobiscum. 

He retires back. 

THE PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. Et CUm spiritu tuo. 

COLOMAN advances to the altar-steps. 
coloman. [In clear tones.'] Dominus fortitudo 
plebis suae, et protector salutarium Christi sui est: 
salvum fac populum tuum Domine; et benedic haere- 
ditati tuae, et rege eos usque in seculum. Tollite 
portas principes vestras ; et elevamini portae aeter- 
nales : et introibit Rex gloriae. Quis ascendet in 
montem Domini, aut quis stabit in loco sancto ejus? 
Innocens manibus, et mundo corde. 

the priests. Desiderium animae ejus tribuisti ei; 
et voluntate labiorum ejus non fraudasti eum . . 

coloman comes down, holding out both hands 
to almos, whom he leads up to a seat in the 
altar-space. He leans as if to kiss him, and 
then draws back. 
coloman. Welcome, brother . . 
the priests. Quoniam praevenisti eum, in bene- 
dictionibus dulcedinis. Posuisti in capite ejus, coro- 
nam de lapide pretioso. 

the miller. I thought he would kiss him then . . 
the armourer. Ay, the kiss of peace. 
simon szvela. That will come after . . 
else. What is that glinting under the Bishop’s pall? 
Nicholas hunyady turns to the people , a roll 
of parchment in his hand. 
ludovic. The Chancellor . . 

Nicholas hunyady. [Reading.] In the name of the 
Holy Trinity and of the indivisible Unity, we here pro- 
claim, Almos, by the Grace of God, hereditary King 


46 


COLOMAN 


[ACT II 


of Hungary, to whom we charge you do homage this 
day in the sight of God and of the Saints. 

THE MILLER. A pretty voice! 
the tanner. He reads well . . 

the priests. Vocem jucunditatis annuntiate et 
audiatur alleluia ! 

The archbishop comes forward with the holy 
oil. almos kneels before him. The archbishop 
performs the ceremony of anointing. 
the archbishop. Aspergo te, hyssopo et mundabitis. 
almos. Asperge me, O Pater. Amen. 
the archbishop. [Mumbling.] Ecce quam bonum 
et quam jucundum habitare, fratres in unum. Sic . . 
sicut unguentem in capite, quod descendit in barbam, 
barbam Aaron. 

the priests. Omnes gentes, plaudite manibus! 

The archbishop returns to the altar, where 
further ritual is in progress. 
else. See, the Bishop has doffed his mitre . . 

A pause, then coloman advances. In his hands 
he holds the crown, almos is still kneeling. 
coloman stands above him. 
coloman. I, Coloman, Prince of Hungary and Bishop 
of Zagrab, knowing whose minister I am and my ex- 
treme responsibilities, and raising, in the sight of you 
all and for your witness, this sacred crown, I set it 
upon the head of your most sovran prince. 

He places the circlet upon his own brows: and, 
tearing off his robes, stands, crowned and in 
complete armour. There is a moment of intense 
calm. Then JOHN csaba hurriedly buckles on 
him the King’s sword. This is followed by a 
general stir, almos has staggered to his feet 
when aladar maroty, snatching up a cross, 
strikes him down the altar-steps, where he lies 
half stunned. Soldiers enter with drawn swords 
from behind the altar. 

Simon szvela. [Loudly.] Treason! Treason! 

The storm breaks. The King’s bodyguard fall 


ACT II] 


COLOMAN 


47 


upon one another . eguon dashes to the head of 
his esquires and bars the great doors. The peo- 
ple rush to and fro in confusion , shouting and 
shrieking. Some , throwing open the southern 
doors , find their passage blocked by odev’s men. 
Those behind press the foremost on to the points 
of the weapons. A panic ensues. Meanwhile 
otto csupor has fought his way to the King’s 
body and stands over it , waving his sword. 
otto CSUPOR. To me, men-at-arms! You snake at 
the altar! 

Several struggle to him and form a ring round 
almos. coloman and his men attack them from 
the altar-steps. 

the archbishop. [Wildly.] Fratricide! Cain and 
Abel! 

He falls in a fit. The priests , who have fled to 
the altar , gather round him and, at the direction 
of aladar maroty, bear him out through the 
altar-door, themselves gradually following. In 
the nave the fighting is fierce. The women 
huddle together in the southern aisle: the men 
become partisans, joining in the fray. 

NICHOLAS HUNYADY. Save the Queen, good masters — 
the Queen! 

He bears her, half -swooning, towards the 
cloister-door. The babe is in her arms. Mat- 
thias odev meets them. 

MATTHIAS ODEV. By this way! [To an officer.] Pass 
them through. [To hunyady.] Take her and the 
child to Gran. Fly! 

A a they disappear, busella seizes odev by the 
arm. 

busella. Who gave you warrant to do that? 
Matthias odev. My heart, madam. 
busella. Fool! Destroy the child! 

Matthias odev. You mother . . I am childless. 
Robert of ujhely has freed himself from the 
melee and makes for busella and Stephen. 


48 


COLOMAN 


[ACT II 


Robert of UJHELY. At least we will stamp out the 
Bishop’s spittle! 

Matthias odev. A Coloman ! [ He runs him 
through .] There, madam . . do you still grudge me 
the other? 

BUSELLA. [Proudly.] Yes. 

Matthias odev. But, I beseech you, into safety. 

busella. My safety is with my husband’s destiny . . 
He disappears into the fight, busella stands 
by a pillar , clasping Stephen, whose face is 
hidden in her skirts. In the crowd sergei- 
michael has sprung upon ludovic and they 
grapple to the death on the ground, else stands 
aghast and trembling. Her father holds her 
with his arm. anna whispers to feth. 

anna. The alarm — sound the alarm ! 

feth rushes up the belfry stairs. A moment 
later a wild tocsin bursts forth. 

Simon szvela. [To two soldiers .] Rout out that 
rats’ nest. 

They go up into the belfry. The bells jangle 
furiously , then are suddenly quiet. The soldiers 
return with dripping swords, anna throws her- 
self , shrieking , upon one of the men. 

anna. Where is the King’s bell-ringer — the master 
bell-ringer? 

the soldier. [Thrusting her away.] In Hell. 

He slashes at her. The other laughs. The 
ARMOURER seizes SZVELA by the throat. 

the armourer. This is your work, choirmaster! 

simon szvela. And your steel, armourer . . 

He stabs him. 

THE ARMOURER. [Falling.] In the heart, devil . . in 
the heart! 

All these actions have been practically simul- 
taneous. Gradually the King’s men fight their 
way to the main entrance, supporting almos 
in their midst. Here they seize up an iron 
lectern and. using it as a battering-ram, burst 


ACT II] 


COLOMAN 


49 


the doors and break out, pursued by EGUON ’s 
esquires, odev’s men dash through the Cathe- 
dral joining in this pursuit and thus leaving the 
southern entrances free. The women and those 
of the crowd who have not taken part in the 
fighting escape by these outlets. The rest press 
out through the big doors in the wake of the 
soldiery, still struggling. There are many left 
dead among the pillars: of the crowd the 
bodies of anna, sergei-michael, ludovic and 
the armourer are visible. 

simon szvela bends over the magistrate, who 
is wounded, quietly stripping off his fur-fringed 
gown, busella and Stephen remain motionless, 
as if dazed by the sudden stillness. COLOMAN 
stands alone and grim on the altqr-steps, lean- 
ing on his sword, moodily surveying the vast 
spaces of the Cathedral. 

simon szvela. Come, let me ease you. [j Slipping 
on the magistrate’s gown.] This hid his infirmity. 
On with you! You shall hide mine . . 

He hastens to the great doorway where he views 
the scene outside, whence shouts and the clash 
of arms can be heard fitfully. There is a long 
pause. Then coloman lifts his head. 
coloman. This is what the forest sang to me when 
I was young. O opportunity! 

Gabriel eguon enters, szvela meets him. 
simon szvela. How swims the tide? 

Gabriel eguon. Almos has escaped, but we are 
masters. [ To coloman.] Come, my liege, show your- 
self to your people! 

coloman comes slowly down the chancel. 
busella advances a few steps to meet him, then 
hesitates. He stands gazing at her a moment 
as if in abstraction. Then his face lightens. 
coloman. My Queen . . 

He takes her by one hand and Stephen by the 
other, and the three move to the doorway. 
many voices without. Coloman ! Coloman! 


C O L 0 M A N 


ACT III SCENE I 


ACT III 

SCENE I The King’s Palace at Pesth. 

The summer chamber. At the back four steps , 
the length of the whole space , lead up to a 
columned loggia whence other series of steps 
lead down beyond into a pleasance of lawns and 
cypresses. The loggia and pillars are of white 
marble. In the well of the chamber are couches 
about a table littered with rolls of parchment 
and writing materials : also , there are two 
couches , one on either side of the loggia. To the 
front, on the left, is an embossed bronze door 
giving to the King’s private apartments: oppo- 
site this, an archway tapestried in rose. 
aladar maroty, now King’s Scribe, is seated at the 
table writing. Below, in the distance of the 
gardens, a voice is singing. 

THE VOICE. I am a Swordsmith, 

Yea, and a Song smith; 

Hark to my hammer! 

List to my fire! 

aladar maroty. . . We, Coloman, by the grace of 
God, hereditary King of Hungary, Duke of Illyria, 
Overlord of the Croats and the plains of Theiss, in 
this, the tenth year of our reign . . 

50 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


51 


the voice. Look , I am forging 

Here on my anvil 
Corselet and helmet, 

Backpiece and g reave. 

Here on my heart, tho\ 

Am I not forging 
Roses and myrtles, 

Lida, for thee ? 

Before the voice dies Gabriel eguon enters from 
the archway with Matthias odev. The latter 
is aged and leans upon a stick. 

Gabriel eguon. What says the Paduan Leech? 

Matthias odev. That I am for the same house 
whether I walk or whether they carry me. It is mere 
old age . . 

Gabriel eguon. These are humours . . 

Matthias odev. Then humour me. Aid me to sight 
of the gardens. 

eguon assists him up to the loggia. 

aladar maroty. . . the tenth year of our reign . . 

Matthias odev. [ Lifting his arms to the sun.] The 
blessed light! How the trees breathe in the heat! 

Gabriel eguon. They are like sentinels: they stand 
at watch. 

Matthias odev. They are like souls: they yearn to 
the light. That our maternal earth should ever keep 
younger than the youngest of her children ! How 
infinite must be her sorrow that her splendid creatures 
are too brief for the handling of eternal things! And 
how infinite her contempt . . Man is mocked, my lord. 
God made us in His own image, but cheated us of His 
goodliest attribute — immortality. What glory is there 
left even for youth? 

Gabriel eguon. My friend, your curiosity is too 
scrupulous. To have slain one’s enemies — that is a 
man’s glory. 


52 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene i 


the voice. Here on my brazier, 

Lo! the hot metal ; 

Here in my bosom, 

Lo! my hot love. 

Matthias odev. “Here in my bosom, lo! my hot 
love . . ” That brevity can love so much! 

Gabriel EGUON. Is it a blessing or a curse? 

Matthias odev. [ Drily , sitting on a couch in the 
loggia .] That hangs on the woman. 

Gabriel eguon. [ Descending the steps.'] So, Master 
King’s Scribe, it is today that our liege lord receives 
in audience this titular King of Jerusalem. 

aladar maroty. Sir Godfrey de Bouillon and his 
Christian chivalry will ride into the city at noon. 

Gabriel eguon. [ Tapping an hour-glass on the 
table.] Then this sanded globe has but to vomit and 
I must on with my harness. 

Matthias odev. Coloman has a large patience with 
these Crusaders! 

aladar maroty. He is a Christian and they are the 
Knights of Christ. 

Gabriel EGUON. So they be not a betterment on their 
precursors — 

Matthias odev. Walter the Pennyless, Peter the 
Hermit — 

aladar maroty. The standard-bearer of the Cross! 

Matthias odev. The prophet of pillage ! After their 
passing, we were as a city that had been sacked. 

Gabriel eguon. Then Gottschalk and Emico of the 
Rhine, marauders both, with their vile rabbles. We 
had to fight them out of our boundaries. This time 
the King has disposed cavalry to hover on their 
flanks — seemingly as escort. He will have no repeti- 
tion of rapine. 

aladar maroty. Sir Godfrey is a noble and reverent 
prince. 

Gabriel eguon. If not — God rest his soul ! 

JOHN csaba comes through the bronze doors, 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


53 


carrying a scroll which he hands to aladar 
maroty. He is noiv Bishop of Zagrab. 

JOHN csaba. Write this fair for the King’s sealing. 
[To eguon.] Good-morrow, my lord. You have a long 
march of convoy before you. ’Tis pity we must 
despatch such a many seasoned men to protect us from 
our guests, when we need them to scatter the foe at 
our gates. 

Gabriel eguon. ’Tis pity, my lord Bishop! After a 
few festal days Sir Godfrey will ride to the southern 
frontier, while I, with two thousand picked men, must 
needs ride at his elbow — to limit his behaviour! So 
are you left bare to Almos . . 

Matthias odev. Happily we hold him checked. 

Gabriel eguon. For how long? I am gone but a 
hill-goat’s leaping, yet it is a span fraught with hazard. 
My going ungarrisons you. Oh, it has been foolish 
clemency in Coloman to pardon Almos so often! Four 
times a rebel! 

JOHN csaba. Thrice taken, thrice pardoned, thrice 
honoured ! 

Matthias odev. Sometimes I question my counsel 
of moderation. And yet a brother’s death . . That 
were too — 

Gabriel eguon. [Lifting his eyebrows .] Brotherly? 

the voice. [Drawing nearer .] 

Here on my anvil 
Look! how I shape it — 

Into a troth-ring , 

Lida, for thee! 

JOHN csaba. Who is this springald has the heart to 
sing almost in the ears of the rebels? 

Gabriel eguon. He seems as careless of them as 
Coloman himself. Yet they are sagely pitched outside 
the sunrise gate. Myself examined them yesterday. 
There are some seven thousand of them — but the 
King does nothing. 


54 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene i 


John csaba. The pride of Kingship seems quenched 
in him . . 

Matthias odev. He is too austere for the people to 
love. That is the pinch. 

JOHN csaba. It is the ruffler Almos that takes their 
hearts, he and his winsome son! 

Gabriel EGUON. While our young prince is a willy- 
nilly ninny — despite your tutoring, my lord Bishop. 

JOHN CSABA. I know it. 

Matthias odev. Had Coloman a Bela! When the 
Duke, as is his sly wont, seats him astride his pummel, 
the golden boy wins all hearts — as how should he 
not? They dress him in miniature mail with a jewelled 
girdle. He looks like a little Saint Michael. The 
rippling hair, the joyous mouth, above all, the eyes . . 
Those wonderful eyes! 

JOHN csaba. They are neither his father’s nor his 
mother’s. Whence got he them? 

Gabriel eguon. What matter? They lead men even 
now. 

JOHN csaba. In that they recruit rebels they are 
basilisks ! 

Matthias odev. A child’s eyes are too beautiful 
to look upon some men’s deeds . . 

guyon rakovscy runs up the steps to the loggia 
from the garden. He continues his light-hearted 
song, accompanying himself on a zither. 

Lol it is -finished 
Here on my anvil, 

Here in my heart, love, 

Troth-ring and troth! 

JOHN csaba. [Sourly.] So, the hawk has become 
a song-bird ! 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. [Coming forward.] It is but the 
moult, my lord Bishop — and a pretty nun. [Crossing 
to odev and laying his zither tenderly in the old man y s 
lap.] Your heart is not too heavy, is it, my lord? 

Matthias odev. [Drawing his fingers wearily over 
the strings.] Not yet, but nearly . . 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


55 


Gabriel eguon. Mark me, my headstrong Guyon, 
do not give battle to the Duke till I come back, if so 
be you can avoid it. We dare not risk a reverse. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. I shall fight if I am attacked : not 
otherwise. 

JOHN csaba. They will not attempt the city . . 

Gabriel eguon. Say you so? Humph! 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Still we have Coloman to their 
Csupor — a Caesar to their Ariovistus! 

Gabriel eguon. A Caesar . . asleep. 

guyon rakovscy. A Caesar who wrestled with 
potent Venice for Dalmatia and threw her! Who 
swept the Normans from the coast-towns, who over- 
matched the Croats, who invaded trackless Russia! 
Asleep ! Ha ! 

Matthias odev. He is a Caesar in administration, 
taking great thought for his people’s weal. 

Gabriel eguon. [ Shrugging his shoulders .] I have 
never understood his strange ideas of governance. 

John csaba. He is too insidiously pagan. He even 
affects not to believe in witchcraft . . 

guyon rakovscy. Well, we have prospered. 

GABRIEL EGUON. Ay, he is a great King, but a diffi- 
cult man. If only — 

He pauses suddenly and looks across at ALADAR 
maroty, who is sanding his writing . csaba 
interprets his look and turns to the scribe. 

JOHN csaba. That is finished. 

ALADAR rises, bows, and, gathering up his parch- 
ments, goes out through the bronze doors. 
EGUON brings his fist down on the table. 

GABRIEL EGUON. Szvela ! 

The effect on the four men is electrical. There 
is an eloquent pause, then GUYON bursts out 
furiously. 

guyon rakovscy. The devil scab him! If hate could 
infect, he were rotten of an old plague! 

JOHN csaba. Gently, gently. He has ears at every 
cranny . . 


56 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene i 


Gabriel eguon. The red-rat Chancellor! He sits 
on Coloman’s back like a grim hump. 

guyon rakovscy. A ditch-rogue blossomed into a 
popinjay! 

JOHN csaba. He is the King’s leprosy. He saps his 
kingliness, he sours his charity. Never an aspiration, 
never a good deed, but, like the breath of a toad on 
milk, he fetids it. 

guyon rakovscy. It is a pampered disease . . 

Matthias odev. Yet he is wise enough for Coloman 
to ‘love him and for us to fear him. 

JOHN csaba. You grant much to the cunning that 
has dispossessed you, my lord. He usurps your seat 
both in the King’s Council and in his heart. 

Matthias odev. Once I sorrowed . . 

Gabriel eguon. He stands like some portcullis of 
ice between Coloman and his friends. 

Matthias odev. Like a portcullis of ice between 
Coloman and himself . . 

busella enters suddenly from the archway . They 
pause and turn to her. She comes forward , 
looking from one to the other with haughty 
enquiry. They rise and bow. 

busella. Is not the King himself? 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Madam, do you walk to the gar- 
dens? 

busella. Do not you hedge me. What were you say- 
ing, Matthias Odev? That the King is not himself? 

MATTHIAS ODEV. Not with his friends . . 

busella. I have feared it. That has echoed through 
my vigils also. Does Coloman regret . . ? 

john csaba. He has lost his fraternity with Holy 
Church. He thinks forbidden thoughts. He is tempted 
of the — 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Chancellor ! 

busella. I would have you remember that my lord 
Szvela is my very especial friend. We — all — are his 
debtors. Without his gimlet brain, my lord and I were 
exiles and you under the kibe of my lord’s brother. 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


57 


Gabriel eguon. Can good come out of evil? 

JOHN csaba. Yea, my son, when the evil is eccles- 
iastical. 

GUYON rakovscy. But this evil, being not ecclesiasti- 
cal, warps Coloman’s heart. 

busella. You mistake, good Guyon. There is an 
ague in the King’s soul . . secret, unfathomable . . I 
know not what. He is further from me as King than 
he was as Bishop and, God knows, that was very far. 
But this springs from himself : ’tis not my lord Szvela’s 
handiwork. A wife misprized should be jealous of 
every ascendancy over her husband . . yet my lord 
Szvela is my very especial friend. 

Gabriel eguon. Well, while he serves his turn . . 
simon szvela enters abruptly from the King’s 
apartments. As Chancellor he is in magnificent 
and brilliant attire. He turns sharply to eguon. 

simon szvela. What? Dallying here, my lord? 
Serve your turn . . 

Gabriel eguon. [ Disdainfully .] I serve my King! 

simon szvela. Unharnessed and unhelmed? [ Bow- 
ing to busella.] Fair morrow, madam. Good betide 
you. 

busella. And us all — today. Gentlemen, this is 
our Gethsemane as a people. Hungary is a lake in 
which some immense serpent has its wallow — out- 
wardly calm, inwardly how unsafe! We here are as 
in a boat in the midst of that lake. O Christ, we 
must row warily! 

guyon rakovscy. Who fears? The army chafes 
behind these unroyal walls. 

simon szvela. You chafe — and my lord is . . un- 
harnessed. I have been at thought . . 

GABRIEL EGUON. Psha ! 

simon szvela. That state is secure whose captains 
are controlled by civil authority. 

guyon rakovscy. [ Turning from him, mockingly .] 
I am a Swordsmith . . 


58 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene i 


Matthias odev. [ Emphatically .] Peace. Coloman 
must not be failed. 

simon szvela. You speak well — as always, good 
my lord. 

busella. Helmet and ermine must take counsel to- 
gether. 

John csaba. Nor forget to mingle prayer with 
their counsels. 

simon szvela. Prayer? — a fig! I will gore the 
Duke in his vitals. Prayer should be always vital, 
as my lord Bishop has ever faithfully taught, where the 
blood of our enemies is concerned. 

busella. Then you have been at thought to some 
purpose, my lord? 

simon szvela. Like the bastard of England, I never 
take off my clothes before I go to bed . . 

aladar maroty appears and crosses excitedly 
to CSABA. 

aladar maroty. My lord, the King enquires for 
you. 

JOHN csaba. What news, what news? 

aladar maroty. The King of Jerusalem is sighted. 
The wakemen report that his cavalcade has debouched 
from the hills. 

Gabriel eguon. I have overstepped my hour. Away 
with you, Guyon. 

The two warriors run up the steps of the loggia 
and disappear . aladar follows them . csaba 
has hurried away through the bronze doors. 
Matthias odev stops the scribe as he passes him. 

Matthias odev. Give me your hand. [ Glancing 
after the others .] Health is very careless of infirmity. 
Even I must adorn myself . . 

aladar leads him away. busella turns to 
szvela in an intimate manner. Her mind is 
focussed on her husband. She scarcely realizes 
the intermediate issues. 

busella. Coloman broods so listless and unmoved 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


59 


above these cloudy troubles till I misdoubt whether it 
be strength or indifference. 

Simon szvela. It is strength of soul and indiffer- 
ence of heart. 

busella. [ Suddenly clutching his arm.] Simon, I 
am afraid. Lately, as I have lain with my lord, he 
has trembled in his sleep and muttered: and, on a 
sudden has clasped me, and awaked and thrown me 
from him. Three nights since, as he lay dreaming, 
did I watch him weep. It is a terrible thing to watch 
a man weeping in his sleep . . 

SIMON SZVELA. Did he speak? 
busella. [7n a whisper .] Yes. 

SIMON SZVELA. What said he? 
busella. “He found her dead . . and I was King.” 
And again, “to be King for that!” Simon, what should 
it mean? “He found her dead . . and I was King.” 
SIMON SZVELA. That’s himself. 

busella. But “he found her dead . . ” Her? 
Meant he me? Yet “dead” — I am alive. And “he 
found her . . ” Who is he? 

simon szvela. Some figure in a dream. 

BUSELLA. And “to be King for that . . ” For what? 
simon szvela. A dream, madam. 
busella. Interpret me that dream, my lord. 
simon szvela. I am no Egyptian, madam. I have 
no necromancy. 

busella. Interpret it, my lord! 
simon szvela. Have I the cipher to the King’s 
dreams? 

busella. I believe it. Once it came, “when Simon 
Szvela found her . . ” Who was this woman, my lord, 
whom you found dead and whom my husband mourns 
in his secret sleep? 

simon szvela. He dreamed. I have never seen a 
dead woman. There has been no need for it. 

busella. You are lying. Can a dream without root 
blossom so many times? Do you think you can de- 
ceive a woman, Simon? 


60 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene i 


Simon szvela. I am not lying. Come, madam, look 
at me. Should I be chosen as love’s ambassador? 

busella. Very well, my lord. Your unlikelihood 
were your recommendation. Would you swear this to 
me? 

simon szvela. Willingly. 

busella. Then, now. [ Lifting a carved crucifix 
from her girdle.'] Here is a crucifix. Within it is a 
splinter of the Holy Cross. Swear to me that you 
have never sought any woman for Coloman. By 
your soul’s salvation! 

Simon szvela. [ Raising it to his lips.] By my 
soul’s . . 

The bronze doors are thrown open with a crash 
and coloman enters , angry and petulant. After 
him come Stephen and John csaba. The 
former is now a youth of some nineteen years. 
He looks red and shamefaced. The bishop is 
beside himself with rage, szvela quietly lets 
fall the crucifix. 

coloman. Fool, fool, fool, fool . . 

Stephen. ’Twas a wager, father. And I have put 
them back on the altar . . 

coloman. Fool! [To busella.] This fool son of 
yours, madam, will set us by the ears. 

busella. What’s amiss, my dear lord? 

COLOMAN. Why, foolery . . 

He breaks off and wanders up into the loggia 
where he stands apart looking down into the 
gardens. 

John csaba. Sacrilege ! 

busella. [Distressed.] Stephen . . ? 

Stephen. There came a gipsy to the town with a 
dancing bear. 

John csaba. A scandalous fellow full of fleas. 

simon szvela. And now in prison . . 

Stephen. Berthold dared me. What can a gentle- 
man do when he is dared? 

JOHN csaba. They took the bear into the Cathedral. 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


61 


There they decked him in my vestments laid for sanc- 
tity upon the altar — set my own mitre between his 
scabbed ears ! — and then, thus tricked out, they made 
him dance to the pipe away into the cloisters and 
among the nuns. And there he became savage! 

Stephen. He hurt no one. And yet they killed him 
for it. 

busella. Unprincely boy! You have crossed your 
father . . 

JOHN csaba. Would I might have you whipped 
through the streets! 

Stephen. And Krisch? [To szvela.] Shall you 
hang Krisch, my lord? 

simon szvela. Perhaps. He is poor enough . . 

Stephen. [ Appealingly .] Save him, my lord. [In 
a loiv tone .] Why, ’twas you encouraged me . . 

szvela, laughing silently , lays his jinger on his 
lips, coloman comes down into the well of the 
room. 

busella. [To csaba.] We are distressed, my hon- 
oured lord. Myself will visit the Mother Superior . . 

coloman. [His tone and manner compelling the 
discussion to an end .] No more of it! This is be- 
neath us. [To csaba.] To your priests, my friend. 
What are these molehills to that mountain without us? 
I would be alone. [Laying his hand on busella’s.] 
And yet I would not be quite alone. 

simon szvela. [To csaba.] You had better come. 
He leads the indignant prelate out through the 
archway. Stephen stands before his parents. 

busella. Ah, Coloman . . 

coloman. Wretched boy, what was the purpose of 
your pleasure? Those fated to thrones should never 
offend a fool nor consort with a knave. This prank 
will cost me a new benefice. 

busella. Ask pardon of your father, Stephen. 

Stephen. I am sorry, Sir. 

coloman. Look you, what is that streak of white 
beyond the cedars? 


62 


COLOMAN [act iii, scene i 


Stephen. Tents, my lord. 

COLOMAN. Whose tents? 

Stephen. My uncle’s — the Duke’s. 
coloman. Blind folly, fiddling us to doom! You 
have a cousin — your uncle’s son, Bela. How speaks 
report of him? 

Stephen. Better than of me. 
busella. Deal not so hardly with the boy . . 
coloman. When I have thrown my brother and 
Death has thrown me, then will the fall lie between 
you and Bela. [ Turning away abstractedly.'] But 
go to, you are a fool. 

busella. Do not fret, sweet chuck. He is disturbed 
with other business. 

Stephen. May I take my leave, good mother? 
busella. Get you to the Bishop and beg forgive- 
ness. 

coloman. [ Overhearing and suddenly attentive.] 

No. Let him cool awhile. But you — you may go ! 

And Stephen goes, hanging his head, coloman 
resumes his pacing of the room. Then he stops 
abruptly before busella. 

coloman. Why are you not wearing those Italian 
trinkets? Be not too serious nor too civil with this 
Crusader. He must not know how sorely shall we 
lack these troops we dispose about him, nor yet deem 
that we do dispense with them lightly. This is the 
kernel of all kingship: to run the middle path of 
omnipotence. Meanness is no sword and prodigality 
no buckler. Do you not affect those Italian emeralds, 
Busella? I bought them of a Greek. Why does your 
son hold himself so loosely? [Suddenly he breaks off 
and bursts into peal upon peal of laughter.] “My 
own mitre between his scabbed ears . . !” 

busella. I have laid aside the emeralds. They seem 
too festal amid these disastering drifts of circum- 
stance . . besides, my skin sallows. 

coloman. Sallow? Fie! Your eyes are heavy. 
Do you not sleep? 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


63 


BUSELLA. Not of late . . 

COLOMAN. Is it care? Send it packing. Is it fear? 
No, not with you . . Grief? Dismiss it. There is 
nothing which is worth either care, fear or grief. 
Would you have these thoughts outweigh your self? 
Well, you are nothing. So these being nothing’s 
thoughts are less than nothing. 

busella. You have your secret griefs, Coloman. 
COLOMAN. I? O God! 

busella. Is it the breaking of your priestly vows? 
coloman. The breaking of . . nothing? 
busella. Or your fraternal treachery . . is it that? 
coloman. The treachery of No-man to nothing! 
busella. I am afraid of your nothings. They work 
so much. 

COLOMAN. How? 

busella. They make you so restless, so distraught 
yet so reserved. 

COLOMAN. Restless? Ha? 

busella. In your sleep. And sometimes, Coloman, 
they unlock your lips . . these nothings . . 
coloman. [ Smiling .] As now? 
busella. No — in your sleep. 
coloman. What do I say in my . . ? [He pauses, 
then striding to her he grips her by both shoulders 
and looks her darkly in the face.] Busella . . 

busella. Coloman, there is something deadly in 
your mind. You have woven me a strange tale in 
your sleep — thread by thread, tear by tear . . 

coloman. In my sleep — tears? I? When did this 
begin? 


busella. I have not reckoned the time but the 
tenour. Who was it whom Simon Szvela found dead 
and whom you loved so dearly that your throne cannot 
redeem . . his . . loss? 


coloman. His . . his loss . . ? [He stops, looking 
at her askance .] Why, I have lost my favourite 
hound : my sole familiar that — God pity it ! — loved 
me for myself. One, mark you, that would come to me 


64 


COLOMAN [ACT III, SCENE I 


unbidden, and fondle my hand as it hung, idle. 

busella. I have tricked you, Coloman. It was a 
she whom Master Szvela found dead — eh, my lord? 
coloman. Why, yes, ’twas a bitch. 
busella. [ Biting her lips.'] I believe you — verily! 
Since when was the Chancellor your kennel-lackey? 
coloman. Accuse me then! Of what, good madam? 
busella. You have a secret woman. 
coloman. So-ho? She must be very secret since I 
know her not. 

busella. You know her . . dead. Remember, he 
found her dead. Who was this . . she? I will have it! 

coloman. I have seen Eastern mountebanks tempt 
the fangs of their own snakes. You do not know what 
you will hear. 

busella. Let me hear it. What was her name? 
coloman. I never knew it. Am I mad? You may 
credit me so. ’Twas before I was . . this. She was 
a young peasant . . but I loved her . . 
busella. She was beautiful? 

coloman. [ Speaking with suppressed passion.] I 
felt that she was beautiful. I took the crown for her 
pleasure — to make her believe in me. I would be 
great for her. She was my Madonna, my Lady of 
Ambition! I became Hungary’s King to be her bond- 
man . . 

busella. A peasant? And then . . ? 
coloman. She died . . of the plague. This fellow 
Szvela knew her. After I had bloodily crowned myself 
in the Cathedral for her, I sent him to seek her out. 
He found her in her hut, dead — dead, my white swan 
on the poor mud floor ! — and I was King. I had 
destroyed my soul for her who was not. To be King 
for that! 

busella. [Bitterly.] Whom can I trust? 
coloman. I have been a shadow playing at sub- 
stance : my only reality — another shadow ! She has 
continued with me. Harvests have rotted, fleeces fallen 
away, but not her continuity. She has come with the 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


65 


leaves and with the snows, and has not gone with the 
falling nor with the melting. These twelve years has 
this golden madness obsessed me: growing and gather- 
ing even as time itself. Dispossession breeds the 
greater desire. This passion has been nearer to me 
than my flesh . . And she I love — a secret, gone to 
the great secrecy. Pah! Would you see a King the 
mime of his own heart? 

busella. Oh, that I had had one-tenth of all that 
love! 

coloman. Well, you have got back your wifehood. 
What more would you? 
busella. I would be loved a little. 
coloman. You are loved . . a little. 
busella. I think this has broken me, Coloman. I 
had supposed I was your mate. 

COLOMAN. Let be, let be. 

busella. Can I not enter your life by any door? 
I can be much to you, although I am not your . . mis- 
tress ! I have stood at your side faithfully through all 
your perils. The King’s honour has been safe in my 
keeping, if not mine in the King’s. 

coloman. Honour begets sons like yours. 
busella. [ Crying out as if in physical pain.] Mother 
of Lilies! 

coloman. I have no more need of women, honour- 
able or dishonourable. They are the bane of action. 
I have trod the maze, but now I have broken through 
the hedge! Henceforth I am love’s heretic. 
busella. Henceforth I am but your Queen . . 
coloman. [Moodily.] Freedom will come when I 
shall vanish from myself . . But now — action! 
Action! Too often has my brain blunted my activity. 
My brother’s strength is in his son. That my great- 
ness, that my ambition should be jeopardied by a 
child’s beauty ! I have founded a dynasty — for what? 

. . for whom? [There comes the shrill winding of a 
horn from the gardens.] Our guests, Busella. I have 
been harsh with you. Forgive me. To our station. 


66 


COLOMAN [ACT III, SCENE i 


He holds out his hand to lead her up to the 
loggia , but she does not take it. They ascend 
the steps severally , and stand looking down into 
the sunlight. 

COLOMAN. He is a lean man — yonder Godfrey of 
Normandy . . 

Gradually the room behind them fills with the 
Court, to whom the horn has been a signal for 
gathering: JOHN csaba in his robes with other 
ecclesiastical dignitaries: simon szvela and 
twelve judges in black gowns with the lawyers 
and scribes in a body: with these, numerous 
courtiers — men and women — gaily dressed 
and chattering subduedly. Among the latter are 
Stephen and Matthias ODEY, who is attended by 
a boy. Those of chief rank range themselves 
about coloman in the loggia: the rest remain 
in the well of the room. 

coloman. [ With a half -smile.'] Now are we ready 
for this King of Jerusalem . . 

The horn sounds once again and the military 
procession ascends to the loggia from the gar- 
dens: SIR Godfrey de bouillon and his follow- 
ers in the midst of Hungarian warriors, first 
among whom are Gabriel eguon and guyon 
rakovscy. coloman embraces sir Godfrey. He 
shows himself the great king, profound in state- 
craft. 

coloman. I rejoice to greet the chivalry of the 
Holy Cross. 

busella. You are very welcome, gentlemen. 

sir Godfrey. Sire, my brother! 

coloman. Sir, this amity is the erasure of old hat- 
reds between our several peoples: the unfolding of 
a fairer trade and the freer interchange of arts and 
husbandries. Normandy is as the sun, of old in 
Heaven: Hungary, the eastern star. You are set 
forward upon a quest, which we — the grandsons of 
pagans — are slow to approve, being but of late brought 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


67 


into the basilicas of Christ. Many of my subjects 
would return to their ancient altars, but I am wiser. 
Our Christian baptism has been our deepest policy. 
Therefore, we are most pleased to welcome you, to 
give you rest, and to escort you on your road . . in 
peace. 

sir Godfrey. We are your grateful brethren in Christ. 

JOHN csaba. Holy Church has taught us the way 
of Salvation! 

Simon szvela. And how to treat our enemies . . 

sir Godfrey. [His eye flashing.'] Except they be 
unbelievers ! 

Matthias odev. Its greatest gift is the inward 
serenity . . 

coloman. Yet my people are stubborn folk. I find 
it hard to wean them from their old superstitions — 
even by the making of laws. I have angered many 
by my faith in the truth; as when I revoked the trial 
by ordeal of witches — because there are no such per- 
sons. 

SIR Godfrey. [ Dubiously .] We have witches in Nor- 
mandy. We torture them into our creed. 

coloman. I do not serve Christ with torture. 

sir Godfrey. Hm . . The mystery of pain pierces 
the mystery of God. I bear letters to you from our 
most Holy Father, the Pope. He commends us to your 
prayers : to the prayers of his son, the great king who 
has so furthered the Faith. But he is constrained to 
be grieved in that you do not more encourage the found- 
ing of monasteries and communities of retreat for pious 
men. 

JOHN csaba. Yea . . 

coloman. I strive rather for good living among my 
priests. 

Matthias ODEV. The grafting of a faith is more 
desperate than the conquest of infidels. 

coloman. We have our infidels to conquer — here- 
tics against the greatness of their own nation. My 
brother is my Saracen ; his utter destruction my 


68 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene i 


crusade. As you rode towards the western gate you 
saw the land in peace, but there, to the east — how 
the white tents flash back the sun ! — lies civil war. 

An absolute silence falls on the room. All turn 
in the direction to which coloman points. After 
a moment , sir Godfrey speaks. 

sir Godfrey. We are beholden to you for sparing 
us an escort at a time when you must need every man 
to your standards. 

coloman. [ With an inscrutable smile.'] I am . . 
Coloman. 

busella. You must be league-weary, Gentlemen of 
the Cross. Your chambers are prepared. 

sir Godfrey. [ Bowing over her hand.] Gracious 
madam . . 

coloman. We will discuss many things when you 
have rested . . 

He leads the knight down the steps and out 
through the archway, eguon and RAKOVSCY fol- 
low with the other Crusaders, busella and 
certain ladies of the court go out by the bronze 
doors, csaba and the priests retire through the 
archway when the knights have passed. The 
court mingle together, with much talk and some 
merriment, and by degrees filter away: many 
across the loggia and down into the gardens, 
the rest by the archway. An officer approaches 
SZVELA. 

the officer. We have your gipsy-fellow, Krisch, 
without, my lord. What would you with him? 

SIMON szvela. That is my affair. Bring him in . . 
when these buzz-flies are gone . . 

The officer goes, szvela moves among the dis- 
appearing crowd. Some converse with him, but 
most draw back at his approach. At last, when 
the room is almost empty, he goes up to a girl 
and whispers to her. She puts her fingers in 
her ears and runs away screaming. MATTHIAS 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


69 


odev has stood watching him, supported by his 
page. 

Matthias odev. Were you witty, Simon — or human? 

SIMON szvela. Inhuman, my lord. An innocent 
child tearing a pretty moth. 

Matthias odev. You are nearing the fatalities of 
your policy. 

SIMON szvela. I have been fatal before . . 

MATTHIAS ODEV. But never so fatal. [Suddenly.] 
Fear a bastard’s bastard. 

Simon szvela. What made you say that? 

Matthias odev. [Simply. ] I do not know. It came 
to me. 

SIMON SZVELA. I am one. 

Matthias odev. Fear yourself. 

SIMON SZVELA. “I, too, have lived in Arcady . . ” 
The officer enters from the archway. With him 
are krisch, a wild shaggy creature, heavily 
manacled, and a soldier. They encounter odev 
as he moves away. 

MATTHIAS ODEV. [To szvela, with a smile.] A 
guest? , 

SIMON SZVELA. A spy . . [To the officer.] I shall 
not want you again. 

the officer and soldier follow odev and his boy 
through the archway, krisch falls on his knees 
before the chancellor, who subjects him to a 
very keen scrutiny. 

Simon szvela. Have you wept for your bear? 

krisch. Beseech you . . mercy! 

simon szvela. If the gods had meant me to be 
merciful, they would have created me as a crocodile. 
You are reported to have entered the city o’ Tuesday 
by the eastern gate, with a dancing bear. You lodged 
in the stables of Vasala’s horsel. Thence you capered 
your beast through the streets . . and especially 
through our camp . . where by chance you caught the 
fancy of our young prince. The rest is chaptered in 
your bear’s death and your own . . roped neck. 


70 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene i 


krisch. Mercy ! 

simon szvela. Does Duke Almos pay a good wage? 
krisch. Tis but scant. 

simon szvela. We pay with life — or death. Have 
you a preference? 
krisch. Mercy ! 

COLOMAN returns through the archway , alone. 
SIMON SZVELA. This is the man, my lord. 

COLOMAN. My brother’s spy — my son’s fellow! 
Well? 

simon szvela. Sir, a moment . . [ To krisch.] 

Were you Duke’s man through love or fear? 

krisch. [ Bearing his arm and showing a terrible 
scar.] Fear. But my daughter is hostage for me. 
coloman. In the camp? 0 piteous virtue! 
krisch. [ Grovelling before coloman and clasping 
his feet.] O noble king! O gracious king! 
coloman. Do not clutch me . . 
simon szvela. What does her virtue matter? 
krisch. [ Sorrowfully .] Nothing. 
coloman. Yet you have risked your life to save it. 
SIMON SZVELA. [ Taking coloman aside.] My lord, 
we have lighted on a pearl of great price in this fellow. 
coloman. What? In this unpalatable oyster? 
simon szvela. Through him we have an entrance to 
your brother. Suppose that he go back to the Duke’s 
camp with two companions — unsavoury as himself — 
whom we supposedly have maltreated and whom he has 
chanced upon in an outlying hovel. Suppose that 
these, by song and buffoonery, penetrate into the 
entrails of the camp, what is to prevent their filching 
. . a child? He who has the son has the power . . 
COLOMAN. Bela ! 

simon szvela. The breath of your brother’s nostrils ! 
coloman. Bela! But who is to be trusted with the 
theft? 

SIMON SZVELA. I — and another. 

COLOMAN. You? 

simon szvela. Oh, I can play the gipsy! 


ACT III, SCENE I] COLOMAN 


71 


COLOMAN. You? Think you well, Simon. And the 
other, the third? 

simon szvela. Give me a glib man who can con a 
part and we will be three gipsies together. 

COLOMAN. This is master-cunning . . 
simon szvela. The Crusaders’ sojourn will give us 
time to perfect our vagabondage. 

COLOMAN. O little man of great thoughts! Be it 
as you approve. My faith is in you. You are the 
spirit that walks beside me . . 

simon szvela. My lord, to the Queen. You must 
please her today, that she may smile tonight. 

coloman. [ Moving to the doors.'] She has been 
wakeful, so she tells me . . [He turns and looks 
steadily at szvela: each trying to read the other’s 
thoughts: then, abruptly.] That third man must be 
well picked. [With a sigh of inexpressible relief.] I 
am unburdened at last! 

He opens the bronze doors and passes through. 

szvela looks after him as if almost puzzled. 

Then he turns to krisch. 
simon szvela. You have heard? 
krisch. [Nodding excitedly, wriggling, dog-like, to 
szvela’s feet and gazing up at him adoringly.] 0 
Master, how may one become as great as you? 

simon szvela. By hazarding all — upon a guess . . 
krisch. And how may one be a great king — such 
as he? 

SIMON SZVELA. By believing the guess! 


C 0 L 0 M A N 


ACT III SCENE II 


ACT III 

SCENE II The Duke’s Camp outside Pesth. 

The tent of almos. An interior of moderate girth , 
hung with heavy folds of a gold material. At 
the left is the entrance to the camp: from with- 
out arises a busy hum of soldiery. At the back 
is a semi-circular divan , between the horns of 
which stands an oblong table. The centre of 
the divan is elevated to make the ducal seat. 
To the right the tent slopes round in such a 
manner as to form a somewhat narrow passage- 
way to the inner sleeping tent of ILONA. In 
this passage-way is a small couch of skins, 
which forms bela’s bed. The inner tent is 
divided by curtains from the passage-way. It 
is night. In the body of the tent a brazier is 
burning which lights the circle, but throws the 
passage into a bronze shadow. 
ilona is seated upon a piled heap of furs in the centre 
of the tent. Her hands are idly dallying with 
some roses in her lap. She is watching bela 
fencing with fedor gyuri, otto csupor’s ancient , 
in the immediate foreground. The boy, a strik- 
ing figure in complete mail, wields a small 
rapier-like weapon which the soldier parries with 
his sheathed sword. 

fedor gyuri. Madonnina! Through the middle! 
Now you may say you have beaten Fedor Gyuri at 
fence. 


72 


ACT III, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


73 


bela. Would it had been my uncle’s middle! 

ILONA. Wild little Bela . . 

bela. I am not little, mother. I am your knight. 
ilona. [ Laughing , throws him a rose.] Then here 
is my guerdon. Twine it in your sword-hilt. So. 
[ Holding out her hand.'] Now kiss my hand, as my 
knight should. 

As he kneels to obey she draws him to her , and, 
seizing him in her arms , hugs and kisses him. 
bela. [ Struggling free, abashed.] Mother! You 
forget I am a soldier. 

ilona. A soldier never runs away from a kiss. 
What say you, Fedor Gyuri? 

fedor gyuri. For my part, I am valiant against 
anything but a bad breath. 

ilona. [Smiling.] And that requires encounter be- 
fore discovery. 

fedor gyuri. [ Shrugging his shoulders.] We can 
always fall back after the first brush. 
bela. Have at you again, Fedor! 
fedor gyuri. Soh ! You would catch me napping? 
[Sending the boy’s sword spinning across the floor.] 
There! Y’are a dead man. 

ilona. You were not quick enough! A wise man 
never shuts his eyes. 

fedor gyuri. Except as folk say in my Servia, when 
his son wears the king’s face. 

bela. If I wore my uncle Coloman’s face I would 
pluck out my eyes that I might not see myself. 
ilona. Son, son ! 

bela. So should I be a wise man, mother. That 
were to shut one’s eyes close. 

ilona. [Clasping him to her breast.] Little son . . 
The curtains of the inner tent are parted and 
rosalys issues, singing merrily. 

rosalys. On a night of dropping gold 
My mouth met my lover’s . . 


74 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene ii 


ilona. Who will first forget that meeting of lips — 
you or he, my red Rosalys? 

fedor gyuri. Rumour whispers that this red maiden 
has two hearts — one in our camp and one in our 
enemy’s. 

rosalys. Tis better than to have but one and that 
in one’s paunch! 

bela. [ Standing at ilona’s side and bending over 
the flowers in her lap.] Mother, why are some roses 
red and others white? 

ilona. All roses were white once, until a girl 
kissed one. 

rosalys. [To bela.] Little rose, shall I make you 
red? [ She kisses him.] I am come to robe you for 
your dreams. 

bela. Mother, if you were a rose, would you choose 
to be white or red? 

ilona. ’Twould not matter which I were, were I a 
rose. I could not see myself. 

bela. Are flowers blind? Is that why they die so 
soon? Even these are drooping here in your lap. 
Poor, blind rose! How pitiful, mother, that it cannot 
see itself . . or [ laughing up at her] its mother! 
Have flowers mothers? It must be an awful thing not 
to see . . I would rather be anything than blind. 
There are so many lovely and curious things in the 
world to see. 

fedor gyuri. Lovely things are always curious — 
witness your lovely woman! 

ilona. [Coldly.] These occasions are vouchsafed 
to us for silence. 

fedor gyuri. I laughed to withhold my tears. I had 
a little son . . 

almos enters from the camp, an open chart in 
his hand. He is pointing out certain dispositions 
to NICHOLAS HUNYADY and PETER ITTAKAR, who 
follow him. In their wake comes otto csupor. 

almos. There’s the breach . . [He hands the chart 
to hunyady.] Well, madam wife, how fare you this 


ACT III, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


75 


summer night? The air is ominous as with thunder. 
[ Throwing himself down on the skins by the brazier .] 
What a brave light! 

ilona. You do not feel it too hot, my lord? 
almos. No. ’Tis a brave light. I can forgive its 
heat for its cheer. 

bela. [ Sitting beside him.] May I not sleep in my 
armour this once? Father, tell them to let me. If 
there should lurk a king-dragon in the dark . . 
almos. [Smiling.] I do not sleep in mine . . 
NICHOLAS HUNYADY. [Studying the chart.] . . in a 
line with the four haggard cedars . . 

otto CSUPOR. It is well begun. Tomorrow we will 
lime our birds with burning pitch. 

almos. The Crusaders rode forward today. I 
counted two thousand o’ Coloman’s men under Gabriel 
Eugon at their heels. Let them reach but three days’ 
march from the city and we will storm. 

otto CSUPOR. [With grim relish.] After the storm- 
ing the sack! 

fedor gyuri. Then give me a torch — but not the 
torch of Hymen: for it will be Romans and Sabines! 

Nicholas hunyady. We shall do wisely to await 
Krisch. 

otto csupor. He will never come back. 
peter ittakar. A dishonest eel! Did I not remark 
upon his — 

fedor gyuri. Daughter? He was more chary of her 
chastity than she has been! 

almos. Tush! They have hanged him. [To bela.] 
You are nearly asleep. Come, you must bid goodnight 
to your army. 

He picks him up in his arms and carries him to 
the entrance of the tent. There they stand look- 
ing out. Desultory shouting from the nearest 
soldiers hails the child's appearance. 
peter ittakar. [Stretching out his hands to the 
brazier.] My poor, thin hands . . This summer 
weather is full of change and treachery. 


76 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene ii 


fedor gyuri. It is like the love of woman — hot, 
with sudden coldnesses. 

ROSALYS. [With roguery.'] That you may not cast 
the clout of desire too soon . . 

The shouting of the soldiers begins to swell 
in volume until it becomes a great roar. 

NICHOLAS HUNYADY. How they love the child! 

ilona. This makes one live. 

otto csupor. Your boy, madam, is Coloman’s chiefest 
foe. 

Nicholas hunyady. He is the patron saint of our 
enterprise. 

otto csupor. He flames into our men’s bellies like 
strong drink. Hark to them ! Fools ! — yet it is a 
useful folly. 

almos. [Returning with bela still in his arms.] Could 
my brother’s son this much? Of a surety, this time I 
am king. Where is there a weak joint in our armour? 
Never before have we lifted standards so auspiciously. 
Coloman’s necessity has thinned his garrison, as his 
Chancellor’s villeinry has loosened his immediate 
friends. Can a priest and a choirmaster have the 
knack of men? 

ilona. Yet they quelled you those three times . . 

almos. To wisdom me for a fourth blow! 

ilona. If that fourth blow fails, will they pardon 
you a fourth time, O Duke of Dalmatia! 

almos. Oh, this brother! Dalmatia? Call you that 
generosity? A dukedom for a king! This time our 
son will establish us. [Looking down at bela.] 
Asleep . . 

ilona. Give him to me. 

rosalys. I will bring his white shift from the inner 
tent. 

ilona. [Lying him upon his bed.] Let him sleep 
as he willed. He is a king’s son. 

almos. Wife, those are queenly words. 

She laughs up at him as they bend , with ROSALYS, 
over the child's bed , and he kisses her upon the 
lips. 


ACT III, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


77 


NICHOLAS HUNYADY. [To csupor.] When will our 
mercenaries, those outlawed English and the archers 
from Picardy, catch up with us? 

otto csupor. They should march in by thirty hours 
hence. 

almos. [ Who has re-entered the circle .] Where is 
the map? [hunyady hands it to him .] When we have 
forced the breach our first point of vantage must be 
the Burial Hill. It commands the roads to the east- 
ern and southern gates . . Let them bring in wine. 
I am thirsty. 

fedor gyuri leaves the tent, almos, map in 
hand , takes his seat on the divan, spreading the 
parchment on the table before him. csupor and 
hunyady lean over his shoulders. rosalys 
turns and whispers to ilona. 
rosalys. His lips are moving . . 
ilona. He is babbling to God . . 
peter ittakar. [Mumbling by the brazier .] My lost 
monies . . and I grow old . . 

almos. . . and so, straight into the square! 

fedor gyuri re-enters abruptly. 
fedor gyuri. Krisch is come! 
almos. What! After all? 
otto csupor. What say you? 
fedor gyuri. Krisch, the gipsy, is come back! 
ALMOS. Fetch him. 

gyuri draws aside the entrance-flap and krisch 
appears on the threshold of the tent. 

ILONA. [Coming forward .] Have you news, my 

lord? 

almos. Here it comes — on two legs. Well, fellow? 
krisch. [Bowing obsequiously.'] O noble king! 0 
gracious king! 

otto csupor. [Drawing his dagger and laying it on 
the table.] The truth, or — 
almos. How many of Coloman’s men rode out with 
the Crusaders? 

krisch. Some two thousand. 


78 


COLOMAN [ACT III, SCENE II 


almos. [ To the others.'] That is true. I told you. 
I counted them. Some two thousand. Well? 
krisch. But, noble king, — 

otto csupor. But? [To almos.] He qualifies your 
truth. [To krisch.] Speak up, vermin! But what? 

krisch. The great Crusader left double that num- 
ber of his own men behind in the city. 

Nicholas hunyady. What? As an auxiliary garri- 
son? 

otto csupor. Under treaty with Coloman? 
almos. This is grave news. 

otto csupor. Blood of the Virgin! That’s a king’s 
trick! Did I not counsel you to reckon the number 
of the Crusaders both as they entered and as they 
left the city? Then could we have tested these tidings. 

almos. They entered by the western gate. How was 
it possible to reckon them? 

krisch. Masters, do not trouble at this thing. I 
have done your work well. While in the city I chanced 
upon two of my tribe who had come from over the 
hills among the Crusaders’ camp-followers, dancing 
and mumming among the men at night. Once in the 
city they fell adrift and, being taken by the palace- 
guard, they were whipped for the amusement of Prince 
Stephen. My tribe are proud men. 
otto csupor. What of it? 

krisch. These two men know the Crusaders who are 
left. They say they could be won over. 
peter ittakar. I do not believe him. 

OTTO CSUPOR. Do you not? Then I do. 
almos. Where are these men? 
krisch. Yonder. Masters, shall I call them? 
otto csupor. No! Fedor Gyuri — 
fedor gyuri. [At the entrance.] I can see them 
standing between two sentries with torches. 
almos. Have them in. 

fedor gyuri disappears, krisch falls on his 
knees before almos. 
krisch. 0 king, my daughter . . ? 


ACT III, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


79 


ALMOS, CSUPOR and ITTAKAR burst into a harsh 
laugh, krisch hangs his head. Then SIMON 
SZVELA and coloman enter , marvellously dis- 
guised as gipsies, followed by fedor gyuri. 
szvela carries a zither. 
almos. Are these they? 
krisch. Ay. 

Those in the tent regard curiously every move- 
ment of the newcomers, who make a silent obeis- 
ance and stand humbly. 
almos. What is it that you affirm? 

szvela begins to speak in a high, rhythmical 
recitative, accompanying himself mournfully 
upon the zither. 

simon szvela. I and my brother are from over the 
hills, from the pastures of the 
White Ponies. 

We ran at the side of the men with 
the streaked blood on their 
breasts and their shields. 

At night our songs arose with the 
rising stars and they listened to 
us and were glad. 

For God has given us freedom, us 
the wanderers, the freedom of 
song. 

otto CSUPOR. Cannot you tell a plain tale plainly? 
almos. God’s body, yes! 
krisch. It is the manner of our tribe. 
ilona. But it is charming! And, so the news be the 
same, what matter? 

SIMON szvela. They rested in the city, in the house 
of the king, then like swallows 
they sped to the south and the 
sun. 

But some of their brothers have 
tarried and they are falcons 
tasselled to the king’s wrist. 

As a stone in the midst of passionate 


80 


COLOMAN [ACT III, SCENE II 


water is unmoved, so are these 
knights in the midst of strangers* 
passions. 

But their swords may be bought by 
gold and by silver, for they are 
of the tribes of men. 

Nicholas hunyady. It is certain that many of these 
crusading troops are adventurers. 
almos. Still . . 

otto csupor. Where are these auxiliaries encamped? 
[To the others .] How will they answer that? 

simon szvela. They are quartered in the palace- 
gardens. 

peter ittakar. We are being tricked! Have such 
men as these eyes to pierce a palace? 
almos. [To szvela.] How know you this? 
simon szvela. The Crusaders bade us in that we 
might dance to them, as we were wont. And then 
we were catched by the young prince. He had us 
whipped and thrust out of the gates. I am a great 
man in my tribe. 

Here three servants enter , carrying wine. This 
they set on the table before almos and then 
quietly leave. ILONA fills the cups. Presently 
the men begin to drink. 

otto csupor. Who leads this hostage company? 
simon szvela. Sir Eustace de Burgh. A ruined 
gentleman. 

fedor gyijri. Ready salted to our palate! 
almos. How can you bring us into touch with this 
knight? 

simon szvela. Let one of you make pilgrimage to 
the burned monastery of St. Sebastian on the hill 
above Pesth, when you will. Trust us with a message 
to the knight. He shall be there to meet you. He 
has the free disposal of himself. 

peter ittakar. What do these gipsies want for 
their going-between? 

almos. Yes. [To szvela.] Speak. 


ACT III, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


81 


simon szvela. A mug of wine and a mug of gold. 

NICHOLAS HUNYADY. This is worth our fair con- 
sidering . . 

otto csupor. Ay, for if this news be true, our first 
plan is foiled. Come, sirs, to council. [To fedor 
gyuri.] Send these three vagabonds to the guard. 

almos. Give them food and let them await our fur- 
ther pleasure. 

ilona. Sweet my lord, may not these gipsies dance 
and sing for us, for Rosalys and me, first? To a 
woman in a camp the hours are very heavy. 

otto csupor. [Beneath his breath.] These trivial 
women . . 

almos. Wife, we are at business. 

ilona. It is but a small moment . . My lord, I have 
so few pleasures. Let me bid them dance and sing 
to please us. ’Twill not wake the little one. Give me 
my desire, my lord. 

peter ittakar. It will at least serve to prove their 
gipsyhood. 

otto csupor. For once, you have made a point! 

Nicholas hunyady. You wisdom us, Peter Ittakar. 

almos. So! Let them wait. [To szvela.] Show us 
your tricks. 

simon szvela. What song shall I sing to you, 0 
beautiful Queen? 

ilona. A love-song . . 

szvela hands his zither to krisch who squats 
by the passage-way. The latter begins to play , 
uttering a low crooning sound which occasionally 
rises to an eerie cry. coloman squats opposite 
krisch. He utters the same sounds , rhythmic- 
ally moving his hands to the tune, szvela be- 
gins a kind of slow dance which consists of 
graceful fantastic movements, ilona and the 
men watch them , fascinated. The latter are 
drinking freely. ROSALYS stands at the entrance 
to the passage-way also watching the perform- 
ance. 


82 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene ii 


SIMON SZVELA. 

Bareback on my plunging pony 
I rode thro * the pines in the morning , 

Singing , singing , singing . . 

Czene was lurking in the brushwood , 

Czene, the tawny , my tawny -limbed love , 

And s/ie laughed upon me as I passed her , 

Bareback on my plunging pony. 

Bareback on my plunging pony 
I lifted the bridle , my bridle of rope , 

Calling, calling, calling . . 

And I leaped my pony over the brushwood. 

But Czene the tawny, my tawny-limbed love, 
Laughed and sped thro * the pines, 

And I followed, galloping, galloping, 

Hallooing , hallooing, hallooing! 

The music continues, szvela reverts to his 
dancing. The men, who have listened silently, 
show their appreciation. The crude passion of 
the song has moved ilona, for she has sat with 
bowed head and twining restless hands. Now 
she looks up and her eyes fall on coloman. She 
watches him continually, intently. He becomes 
uneasily aware of her gaze. 
otto csupor. Aha, there is life in that! 

FEDOR GYURI. And the love of a free man! 
peter ITTAKAR. He takes his breath mellifluously — 
a very mellifluous fellow! I knew another of his kid- 
ney; ’twas a choirmaster . . 

almos. He is a lithe Romany. Look, wife, how he 
wriggles! I remember that my uncle, the old king, 
would have it that these tumblers were possessed of 
unclean spirits. He was a saint and drew it from the 
Gospels. Myself am not clear in the teaching of Paul 
upon the Gadarean swine . . 


ACT III, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


83 


NICHOLAS HUNYADY. [ Refilling his wine-cup .] Paul 
is the marrow-bones of Christianity . . 

PETER ITTAKAR. [Vacantly.] Why is it that the 
young priests always take confession? 
fedor gyuri. To learn the humanities. 

SIMON SZVELA. 

Bareback on my plunging pony 
I chased the tawny girl , my tawny-limbed Czene, 
And I caught her by her wild black hair , 

Caught her and held her and kissed her, 

And lifted her up before me 
Bareback on my plunging pony! 

Caught her and held her and kissed her, 

Kissed her hair and her mouth and her neck 
Till her tawny body flushed like a lion y s tongue: 
For the might of a man was mine 
And the warmth of a woman hers. 

Our kisses were stars of fire 
As we rode, rode, rode, 

Madly, fiercely, on thro f the pines, 

Bareback on my plunging pony! 

He flings himself face downwards on the skins, 
panting. The music stops. The men laugh and 
applaud, ilona rises stretching out her hands 
to ROSALYS. 

fedor gyuri. Were I my master's dog I would 
howl! 0 little less than the angels! 

ilona. Give them wine . . Their song sears me. 
rosalys. Come with me apart, madam. Sometimes 
I could hate men . . 

She leads her to bela’s couch, beside which they 
both sit, ilona still intent upon coloman. 
fedor gyuri pours out wine for the gipsies. 
almos fumbles in his girdle and throws SZVELA 
a piece of money. 
almos. A zecchin for you! 


84 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene ii 


SIMON szvela. [ Grovelling for the coin.] The God 
of the gipsies be bountiful to you! 

fedor gyuri. [ Handing him a bowl of wine.] Have 
the gipsies an especial god? 

simon szvela. [ Holding up the gold piece.] Verily — 
and this is his Host, wherein he is transubstantiated. 

fedor gyuri. [ Gazing at him narrowly.] You are 
a strange gipsy! 

simon szvela. Once I dwelled in a caravan with a 
mad priest . . 

almos. My brother is a mad priest. Madness, it 
seems, is a humour of the gall, and the gall is . . a 
pestilent thing. [To Nicholas hunyady.] Give me 
your considered opinion: what are the origins of 
madness? 

NICHOLAS HUNYADY. [Slowly and weightily.] I 
grew pumpkins in my garden . . 

fedor gyuri. You carry one beneath your skull-cap! 
almos. Old gravity is himself a little — a little . . 
otto CSUPOR. Pumpkins? My wife had a lover. I 
laid his head on her pillow, wrapt in a kerchief! I 
told her ’twas a curious red pumpkin! She is since 
mad and tears herself. 

He laughs at the recollection. 
peter ittakar. [Querulously , to nobody.] I am a 
tried counsellor that has grown poor in the Duke’s 
service . . 

FEDOR GYURI. [ To szvela.] What is your name? 
simon szvela. Is there a name for a rotten apple? 
fedor gyuri. Surely. A name of offence, a rank 
name! 

simon szvela. Then call me Leprosy. 
almos. How is your brother called? 
simon szvela. He will answer to Lust. 
almos. Let him dance. I have a brother . . a mad 
priest . . He is called Coloman . . 

fedor gyuri. We have heard Leprosy mime, let us 
see Lust dance. [To coloman.] Stand out, Shadow! 
otto csupor. Did not the king say “dance”? 


ACT III, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


85 


ilona. [Coming into the circle of light.] Sir, I 
have sickened of this dancing. 

almos. ’Twas your affecting, swift-mooded madam. 
ilona. My distraction punishes me . . 
otto csupor. He does not listen to you. 
ilona. [Retiring into the shadow and throwing her- 
self upon the sleeping hoy’s couch.] O Bela! 

Nicholas hunyady. [Suddenly singing in a high 
cracked voice.] 

Love me, darling, or I die! 

peter ittakar. There is no more filthy sight than 
an old man drunk. 

NICHOLAS HUNYADY. 

Night where thou art is not night 
But continuance of light . . 

peter ittakar. I would have every old man of a 
sober, clean countenance — not puffed up, nor red, nor 
yet hiccoughing . . I have a discreet stomach. 

NICHOLAS HUNYADY. [Taking ittakar by the beard.] 
What? Is’t hawthorn? 

peter ittakar. Old villainy! 

He stirikes feebly at hunyady, misses his aim 
and falls across the table where he lies in a 
drunken stupor, otto csupor empties a flagon 
of wine over his prostrate head, almos remains 
oblivious of the rioting about him. 
almos. This is my court. These are my counsel- 
lors — grave men. For, as Solomon has it, the white 
head is a crown of glory. What say you, good Master 
Leprosy? 

simon szvela. I cap you from the same Solomon: 
all they that hate me love death. 

almos. [Morosely.] Death. Death . . If we take 
the city I shall not kill my brother. 1*11 not risk Hell 
for Bishop Coloman. Let him look to his eyes. Thus 


86 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene ii 


much may a man risk in safety. Eyes, eyes . . Let 
him look to his eyes. [ Shaking himself free from his 
thoughts .] Bring out my son: I would have him meet 
Leprosy and Lust — good gentleman both, but with 
strange names. [ To szvela.] Like you the fondling 
of children? 

simon szvela. He who has the son has the power. 

almos. Truly. Well said. And what says Master 
Lust? 

simon szvela. The tongue of lust is leprosy. 

ilona. [With bowed head.] 0 Mother of Sorrows, 
look upon this my sorrow . . 

almos. Now, I shall have no scruples on the killing 
of choirmaster Szvela . . 

simon szvela. Torture him, my lord. He tortures 
me. He is possessed of a devil and, in his turn, 
possesses Coloman. Therefore is Coloman, by deputy, 
possessed of a devil. 

otto csupor. We will sew up a live cat in his living 
entrails. 

simon szvela. Good, good. Never pity a devil. [He 
worms himself along the floor to the foot of bela’s 
bed. To ilona.] Think, were he to get hold of your 
little prince . . 

ilona. Who are you? Oh, go! [In a low voice.] 
I fear for your brother. I know him. Are you not 
his . . devil? 

simon szvela. O beautiful Queen, let me kneel once 
by your son’s bed, so shall I bear innocence with me 
when I go. 

ilona. I fear you, terribly. 

almos. [Suddenly remembering coloman.] I bade 
you dance. Cannot you dance? 

fedor gyuri. [Who has been watching simon and 
ilona.] I do believe these are no gipsies! 

ilona. Rosalys ! 

almos has come down from the divan, slightly 
staggering in his walk. He goes up to coloman, 
who stands silently before him. 


ACT III, SCENE II] COLOMAN 


87 


almos. You are a bold man. I bade you dance and 
you have not danced. [Drawing his hand across his 
forehead .] God’s body, it is hot! 

OTTO CSUPOR. [Roused.] What if they be Coloman’s 
spies? [To FEDOR gyuri.] Heat your dagger in the 
brazier. 

krisch. [Crying out in terror.] Aie! 

ALMOS. Spies! [To coloman.] Speak rogue! 
Prove that you are a mountebank! 
coloman. I am Coloman. 

The answer at first produces an intense silence. 
Then its humour and its incredibility lull sus- 
picion, and the men laugh heartily. Suddenly 
bela runs wildly into the centre of the tent. 
He has awaked, terrified, from a dream. 
bela. The king-dragon! The king-dragon! 
ilona. Bela ! Bela ! 
simon szvela. He who has the son — 

He pounces upon the child and seizes him up, at 
the same time with an adroit kick overturning 
the brazier. The tent is plunged in smoke and 
darkness. Then, drawing a long knife from his 
tunic he slashes open the tent hangings and 
makes his escape, still carrying the struggling, 
screaming boy. Someone dashes through the 
aperture after him. In the meantime, the tent 
is filled with confusion, almos and otto csupor 
have drawn their swords. 
almos. Guards ! 

otto csupor. God, that was Szvela! 
fedor gyuri. I have killed one . . 

There is a deep groan and the noise of a falling 
body. Several soldiers rush in with torches. 
almos and csupor leap through the aperture 
after szvela. ilona rushes to the prostrate 
man and kneels by him. 
ilona. Coloman! Coloman . . 

fedor snatches a brand from a soldier as he 
passes and thrusts it into the fallen man } s face. 


88 


COLOMAN [act hi, scene n 


It is the dead body of krisch, the gipsy, fedor 
looks down at ilona with a grim smile and tak- 
ing her firmly by the arm hurries her from the 
tent , which has caught alight from the strewn 
fuel of the brazier, rosalys follows them. Some 
of the soldiers tear down a part of the blazing 
hangings and trample them underfoot: others 
drag out Nicholas hunyady and peter ittakar. 
All around is shouting and tumult, and lights 
dashing to and fro. 


C O L O M A N 


ACT IV 


ACT IV 

SCENE: The King’s Palace at Pesth. 

The summer chamber at night. The room is softly 
lighted by a series of hanging lamps. Behind 
the pillars of the loggia , across the entire lateral , 
are drawn heavy rose-coloured curtains. 

JOHN CSABA is standing in the well of the chamber 
looking towards guyon rakovscy, who stands 
on the dais at the juncture of the curtains, 
listening. 

JOHN csaba. You hear them . . still? 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Yes, still. 

JOHN CSABA. What does it mean? 
guyon rakovscy. It is a continual murmuring, like 
the voice of despair. 

JOHN csaba. Rather, like a hive of unhoneyed bees. 
guyon rakovscy. I see lights waving to and fro 
beyond the walls. The Duke’s men, being duped, are 
gone horn-mad. 

JOHN csaba. I have listened to many such swarms 
in the monastery orchards. But these are men, and 
robbed of more than honey. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. We have torn the very heart out 
of their breasts. [With a wild laugh of enthusiasm.] 
What days we are seeing! 

JOHN CSABA. We are in God’s hands, my son, who 
has delivered our enemies into our power. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. There is still the anger, and the 
outnumbering spears of desperation . . Ought I to 

89 


90 


COLOMAN 


[act iv 


give battle in these straights? Would to God, Eguon 
were back! 

JOHN csaba. There is a sage precept, my son, — 
which I would not countenance to anyone but 
you — that says: when God is about other business, 
put your trust in the Devil. Let us lean upon the 
Chancellor. 

guyon rakovscy. I can forgive him very much for 
last night. [ His face lighting up.] How daring 
’twas ! 

john csaba. He was too secret in it. What if he 
had failed? And whom took he with him? We know 
not — some deep fellow of his. But the achievement 
is his absolution. 

guyon rakovscy. Our falcons are flown back to us 
with their quarry. A double booty — Bela and his 
father ! 

John csaba. God is very good. Have we them lodged 
separately? 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Ay. 

busella has entered through the bronze doors. 

busella. Will they attack? 

guyon rakovscy. Perhaps they do not know their 
own strength. 

JOHN csaba. With their head lopped, they are a 
helpless trunk. They must entreat for peace. 

guyon rakovscy. Otto Csupor lives for battle. 

busella. Oh, we have hostages too precious . . 

guyon rakovscy. Bethink you, that army is now 
his own. An ambitious general hides a crown beneath 
his helmet. What cares he for the death of his 
masters? 

JOHN csaba. He is of the pattern of Zimri. 

busella. Tell me, Guyon, did you see the prisoners 
when they were brought in? 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. I did, madam. The Duke was 
breathless, and pale as from drinking: and his little 
son clung to his father’s girdle, weeping passionately. 

John csaba. How was the Duke taken? 


ACT IV] 


COLOMAN 


91 


GUYON RAKOVSCY. It seems that my lord Szvela had 
set a strong ambush by a desolate shrine, whither, when 
he had obtained the child, he sped. The Duke, pursu- 
ing, outstripped the first of his followers, and, fallen 
among our guard, was in that manner taken. So did 
they gallop back into the city. 

busella. [Haughtily.'] ’Twas ably done. 

JOHN csaba. Of a surety, ably is the word. 

GUYON rakovscy. Ably is small praise for a very 
especial friend . . 

busella. [ Brushing aside his remark.'] Is this boy, 
this Bela, so wonderful in beauty? 

guyon rakovscy. In truth, madam. He was arrayed 
in armour, moulded to his graceful body. His eyes 
blazed starrily through his weeping: and his windy 
hair was wild, so wild . . I could have taken him up 
into my arms and kissed him! 

busella. Hm. You shall kiss him in his shroud. 
GUYON RAKOVSCY. What? Queen! 
busella. I can hear someone walking in the loggia . . 
They wait , listening. Then coloman comes be- 
tween the curtains. There is a strange exulta- 
tion in his voice and bearing. 
coloman. How your faces are filled with light! 
guyon rakovscy. Our faces and our hearts. 
coloman. [ Pinching his ear.] Dear villain, are you 
not a favourite in the bowers of women? 
guyon rakovscy. [Laughing.] Sire . . 
coloman. You shall teach me to dance. Believe me, 
there is great virtue in dancing. I have heard tell 
of a mad priest whose life was in very jeopardy through 
the heaviness of his heels. What’s the news o’ the 
court? I have been abed all day. 

guyon rakovscy. All are afire at the capture of 
the Duke and Bela. 

coloman. ’Twas a golden comedy. 
busella. Who were those swift three? Szvela 
and — ? 

coloman. Two vagabonds in the sight of God. 


92 


COLOMAN 


[ACT IV 


busella. They say that one was killed. 
coloman. Ay, the better man o’ the two. Tonight 
he caravans among the cold stars. 

busella. Here’s your master-mummer . . 

szvela appears, bowing, in the archway. 
simon szvela. What song shall I sing to you, O 
beautiful Queen? 

coloman. A love song, Simon, one that will sear a 
woman’s heart. 

JOHN csaba. Rehearse us the rubric of your ad- 
venture, my lord Chancellor. 

SIMON SZVELA. [To coloman.] Sir, shall I? 
coloman. Show us your tricks. 
simon szvela. Then, by your leave, madam. There 
was a brazier in the tent, and they in the tent were 
drinking, grave sots, with beards o’ hawthorn — and 
a gay woman who feared me, terribly. And Leprosy 
made merry among them while Lust waited in the 
shadow. And there was preached a sermon by a 
would-be Solomon upon the Gadarean swine. And all 
this because madness is a humour of the gall. 
coloman. Cannot you tell a plain tale plainly? 
simon szvela. It is the manner of our tribe. And 
when they were beyond their gravity, the ashes were 
strewn and Leprosy laid hold on the child. Shall I 
more, my lord? 

coloman. Thus much may a man risk in safety. 
busella. He risks very little to our curiosity. Tell 
us — who went with you? 

simon szvela. A fool dispossessed of a daughter, 
and a wise man possessed of a devil. The fool was left 
and the wise man is returned — with his devil. 

John csaba. This is vain trifling! You have told 
us nothing. 

simon szvela. I have told you everything. 

aladar maroty enters from the archway. 
aladar maroty. My liege, the Count Odev has been 
borne hither as was your bidding. 

Matthias odev is carried in on a litter-bed by 


ACT IV] 


COLOMAN 


93 


two servants , who set it down and leave. colo- 
man goes to him. szvela turns aside and, 
mounting the loggia, reclines upon the couch 
on the left, watching the scene below him. 
coloman. Matthias, Matthias . . 

MATTHIAS ODEV. Why have you troubled me? I had 
great businesses with Death. 

busella. God rest you, Matthias Odev. 

Matthias odev. He is about it. [ Kissing her hand.] 
I am beyond my knee, madam, but not my lips. 

coloman. I have woman’s drops in my eyes to see 
you thus . . 

Matthias odev. Why, Coloman? Are we not both 
at the door of good-fortune? 

coloman. Old friend, old master . . 
busella. Your service has not been self-seeking. 
You have loved us . . 

She bends over the old man and kisses him on 
the forehead. 

coloman. [ Beckoning guyon apart.] I would see 
that child Bela. Send him to me. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Here, my lord? 

COLOMAN. Ay. 

As guyon passes the litter odev stops him. 
Matthias odev. Guyon, give me your hand. I have 
loved the earth. 

GUYON rakovscy. There is great rapture in life, 
my lord. 

Matthias odev. Death, too, has its joys. 

guyon rakovscy goes out through the archway. 
coloman. [To odev.] It is not your least great act 
to have come to us in this hour. We have seized a 
strip of advantage, but, in the administration of it, 
we need your calm brain. [Turning to aladar.] Do 
you wait? 

aladar maroty. The Duke entreats to be confessed. 
coloman. Confessed? Then he knows my mind. 
Very well. I will send to him. [aladar goes ] Thus 
*ends his fourth rebellion . . Confession! 


94 


COLOMAN 


[ACT IV 


busella. Let it be the end indeed! 

JOHN csaba. In saecula saeculorum . . 

COLOMAN. [ To odev, eagerly .] What think you of 
our triumph? 

Matthias odev. You have been served boldly in this 
stratagem, but not overwisely. 

coloman. How do you mean? 

Matthias odev. The taking of the child was well, 
very well, but you should have refrained from the 
Duke. 

coloman. How! And have left the supreme gift 
of Chance to rot i’ the road ! 

Matthias odev. Chance is more deadly as a giver 
than as a taker away. Simon Szvela, this will prove 
the fatality of your policy — this taking of the Duke. 
Had you been content with the child and left the 
Duke, Almos and his army had now been at the King’s 
footstool. So full of humility is a stricken father. 
But, having taken father as well as son, you have 
confided this army of rebels to the ambition of a savage 
Magyar — an army stronger than your own! You 
have loosened the bases of your tower for Csupor’s 
toppling. 

Simon szvela has arisen and paces the dais 
thoughtfully. 

coloman. Pho, Matthias, you are mad! My 
brother’s men would not follow Otto Csupor! Nicho- 
las Hunyady, Ittakar . . No . . it could not be . . 

Matthias odev. That was unworthy, Coloman. 

[ Taking him by the sleeve and pointing to szvela.] 
Look, it has hit him! 

coloman. They are in confusion. Pull the curtain, 
Simon. Hark to them! Mad wolves! There — put 
it to. Within the week rides Eguon back. 

JOHN csaba. [ With a slight sneer .] My lord has 
the whims of age. 

coloman. [ Turning to him.] Bishop, there is a 
man, dying, who needs confession. Get you to him. 


ACT IV] 


COLOMAN 


95 


The whims of age profit us better than the whims 
of jealousy. 

And the bishop goes, outraged, szvela has re- 
sumed his seat. 

COLOMAN. Matthias, I did forget my courtesy. For- 
give me. Your logic may be thorough, but ’tis a touch 
too subtle. I do not hold with you. This black bull, 
Csupor, will but run frenzied round his field. He will 
cry treaty tomorrow. But we talk in a blind circle, 
for we have the Duke. 

busella. You must not be brotherly with him a 
fourth time. 

COLOMAN. He shall surely die. 

Matthias odev. 0 Coloman! 

COLOMAN. I were a fool, else. He will never lose 
this traitor’s itch. This brother, whom I have piled 
with honours — ay, and loved — four times flown at 
my throat! That a man would not forgive in his dog! 
These civil discords drain Hungary of her best. Why, 
we have no breathing-space for thrift. And the poor . . 
There are villages in the hills, fatherless, sonless, har- 
vestless. And in the cities neither weaving nor com- 
merce nor learning. How can I be a King and suffer 
it? 

Matthias odev. [ Wearily .] Well? 

coloman. I have proven the vanity of mercy. This 
time I choose to be clement to my people. My brother 
must perish. 

Matthias odev. Not that, Coloman! Rather, im- 
mure him in the hill-monastery at Gran. There he 
would remain at peace, the guest of the monks, and 
would trouble you no more. 

coloman. Could I be sure of that . . 

busella. Never could you. 

coloman. Besides, my whilom love for him is 
turned sour. At the last I hate him. And death 
is the simpler mean. 

Matthias odev. If hate has become your coun- 
sellor . . 


96 


COLOMAN 


[ACT IV 


coloman. [ Sadly .] O my brother . . 
simon szvela. [Softly, from the loggia .] There was 
a drunken man in a tent . . 

bela appears in the archway, accompanied by a 
soldier. He is still in his armour. His face is 
pale and his hair dishevelled. He steps across 
the threshold, unseen by those in the room, and 
stands timidly. The soldier leaves him. 
busella. [Scornfully, to coloman.] You are a very 
moth of philosophy, hovering between action and in- 
action. 

coloman. Were I a woman I should not hesitate — 
cruelty were then my better nature! 

bela. [Coming into the circle .] I am hungry . . 
which of you is my uncle? 

coloman. I. Come hither. [The boy goes to him 
reluctantly, coloman takes him by the chin.'] So this 
is our pretty foe! 

bela. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! 
coloman. Well, and I hate you. So we are quits! 
Do you understand that? 
bela. Yes. We have been fighting each other. 
coloman. We have — and I have won. Do you 
understand that, too? 
bela. I am not afraid. 

coloman. [Releasing him.] Ah, that you were not 
my brother’s son! 

bela leaves him and goes up to odev who puts 
his arms about him. 

busella. What may you mean by that, my lord? 
That he were yours? 

coloman. Will your spirit never rest? 
bela. Why do your hands tremble? 

MATTHIAS ODEV. Because they listen . . 
busella. Whatever sophistries my lord Philosopher 
may spin concerning his brother, he can scarcely stam- 
mer in his mind anent this pretty plaything. 

coloman. [Savagely.] What would you have me 
do? 


«t 


ACT IV] 


COLOMAN 


97 


busella. Destroy both. 
coloman. This is your father in you. 
busella. Husband, when I was childing and we 
were bidden separate, then you promised me, if my 
child lived, to preserve him from his enemies. Is not 
this twain contrived by blood and by opportunity as 
his most deadly enemy? Almos is of less account — 
he has wrecked himself: but this child is of terrible 
imminence — and fatal in his beauty! Those eyes 
can raise armies. Why, they have made you totter! 
My maternity broods over Stephen’s throne, sleep- 
lessly . . sleeplessly . . Sirs, do not think that I hate 
this boy — he is a fair poppet — but my womb fears 
him. Kill him. 

coloman. This is the very honesty of perversion. 
And yet how sure! I do think you know me as a man 
of peace and kindliness; but it is sometimes vicious 
to strain virtue to her limit. Better that two should 
suffer and I be infamied of Time, than that my people 
should be thus continually crucified. 

Matthias odev. It is not your people’s fate that 
moves you. It is your own. 0 this ambition! It 
cracks the mould of nobility, and your great man is 
withdrawn — a grotesque. I remember how once 
Coloman, Bishop of Zagrab, preached on Cain . . 

coloman. Ha! Abel was innocent against Cain; 
but my brother has been four times guilty against me. 
You forget that. 

Matthias odev. And you forget that you were first 
guilty against your brother. 

coloman. Matthias, I am the King. It is not for 
you to fathom my heart in this. The heart of a king 
is a labyrinth of considerations. 

Matthias odev. 0 child Coloman! The largeness 
of life is beyond you yet. You, who lavish your soul 
on the intricate poise of mood and emotion, would 
here scant youth of all its visions, all its ecstasies, 
all its love! You would cheat the rose of its crimson, 
the young stag of the bloom upon his horns. Oh, 


98 


COLOMAN 


[ACT IV 


unthinkable! Your brother is yours, and I will not 
plead for him — but this child is God’s. Bethink you, 
a little space and you were young, meditating, in the 
peace of your midnight cloister, upon the stars, until 
you became even the immensity you beheld. Then 
were you great, too great for . . [He pauses.] Colo- 
man, come forth from that King! 

COLOMAN. Oh, that my brain would sicken . . ! 
busella. Are you unnerved? This is death-bed 
impudence. 

coloman. Sew up your lips! I would rather that 
you were upon that couch than he! 

bela. Shall you kill me, Uncle Coloman? 
coloman. Why were you born? Put your hands 
over your eyes . . 

bela. Why? Have I hurt you? 
busella. You know that you will kill them. 
Matthias odev. Do you know what Death is, Colo- 
man? Do you, madam? Do you, Simon? Yet you give 
it so casually! [To the little boy beside him.] Do 
you know what Death is? 
bela. No. 

Matthias odev. [Clasping bela to him.] Oh . . 
[To the others , passionately.] To send the unknow- 
ing to the unknown! 

coloman. Were there a way as sure but less peril- 
ous! 

simon szvela. [Advancing to the edge of the log- 
gia.] May I commend one to you? — a way of sal- 
vation! ’Tis practised among men whose passions are 
too lilied for the bowstringing of their near rela- 
tions — the maiming of them. It is a dispensation 
approved — as I have myself heard — of a very estim- 
able gentleman. “Let him look to his eyes!” My lord, 
olind them. If you blind a man, it is no murder. So 
you ’scape Hell. Yet your blinded man is a man de- 
stroyed. For who follows a blind man except he that 
desires the ditch? Thus, in the pursuit of mercy, you 


ACT IV] 


COLOMAN 


99 


may obtain salvation i’ this world without its forfeit 
in that to come. 

busella. It is not sufficient. 

COLOMAN. There is an arrow that splits our wand! 
A middle furrow ! This is wisdom. This sets us 
free! It is but a little pain, and they have their 
thoughts . . This eye, this sensitive pupil, that sees 
nothing as it is, whose loveliest imaging is distortion, 
conveys corrosion to the mind. Believe me, to shut 
this eye is to see truly. For Truth is the little sweet 
worm i’ the core of darkness. I give them . . per- 
petual truth! 

bela. [ Crying out.] You would not blind me, 
Uncle! [ Turning to odev.] Plead for me . . [In a 
paroxysm of fear, first pulling and then shaking him to 
rouse him.] Plead for me! Plead for me! He is 
asleep . . Asleep! Oh, wake him! 

But there is no answer, for Matthias odev has 
died quietly. Gradually the others realize what 
has happened. An awed silence follows. Sud- 
denly a wild commotion and angry voices are 
raised in the corridor beyond the archway. 
guyon rakovscy. For God’s sake, Sir — ! 

Stephen. How? Will you waylay me? 

Stephen, flushed with wine, staggers into the 
room, guyon rakovscy hurries after him as 
though to stop him from encountering his father, 
but halts aghast on the threshold. 

Stephen. I am a gentleman. And here is my mother. 
Good even, mother. Y’are black tonight. 

coloman. You ghastly clown! [He goes up to his 
son and deliberately strikes him in the face.] 0 
Heaven and Earth! That I should be an eagle dashed 
into this cataract of whirlwinds for you? Oh, that 
you were not! [To GUYON, indicating BELA.] Guyon, 
take away this boy. [Steadily, but in a low voice and 
with difficulty.] Forthwith let him and his father . . 
both be blinded. 


100 


COLOMAN 


[ACT IV 


GUYON rakovscy. [In horror .] You? This? You, 
whom I have worshipped, — ? 
coloman. Both be blinded . . 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. [Slowly, tonelessly .] So be it . . 
bela. [Drawing himself up .] You can blind me, 
but you cannot make me afraid. I am a king’s son. 

Saying this he draws his little gauntlet from his 
belt and flings it at coloman. It strikes him on 
the breast and drops harmlessly. coloman 
does not seem to have remarked it. bela him- 
self swoons and falls backward on to the floor. 
GUYON rushes to him and , lifting him in his 
arms , kisses him on the lips. His voice is broken 
with tears. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. Little, pale bird . . 

He carries him out through the archway. 
busella seizes Stephen by the arm and draws 
him towards the bronze doors. 
busella. Come away. I think I have lost my eternal 
soul for you tonight. 

Stephen. [Tipsily.] Never fear, mother. I’ll burn 
candles for you. 

They go out. coloman stands for a moment in 
abstraction. Then he moves to odev’s couch 
and looks down sorrowfully at the dead old man. 
Then loosening his mantle from his shoulder , he 
lays it reverently across the litter. 
coloman. Your silence cries aloud. 
simon szvela. [Who has come down from the log- 
gia .] I am sorry he is dead, [odev’s two servants 
appear in the archway. ] They are come to carry him 
away. 

COLOMAN turns aside as the servants enter and 
bear off the litter. Then he catches sight of 
bela’s little gauntlet on the ground and stoops 
and picks it up, looking at it wonderingly. 
coloman. Whose is this? 

simon szvela. Your little nephew’s. He threw it 
at you. 


ACT IV] 


COLOMAN 


101 


COLOMAN. He threw it at me? I did not notice it. 
[He lays it on the table.] Csupor . . 

simon szvela. Be at peace. I have despatched a 
courier to Eguon to bring him back by forced marches. 
Otto Csupor’s uncertainty as to those four thousand 
shadowy Crusaders will keep him idle tonight. 

coloman. You have done well, Simon. [ Seeing that 
he ascends the loggia.] Where do you go? 

Simon szvela. Into the depth of the gardens. 
coloman. The gardens? 
simon szvela. To hear the nightingale. 
coloman. [A pause , then as szvela pulls apart the 
curtains.] They are quiet now. 

simon szvela. [Also listening.] Strangely quiet. 
Shall you come with me? The night is beautiful. 

coloman. No. I’ll go read Cicero upon Immortality. 
Nothing more can trouble me tonight. 

He seats himself at the table and unwinds a roll 
of parchment which he begins to read intently. 
szvela disappears and presently can be heard 
singing as he descends until his voice is lost in 
the distance. A silence. Then aladar maroty 
enters. 

aladar maroty. There is a woman prays to see 
you, my lord. 

coloman. [Looking up.] A woman? 

aladar maroty. And hooded. 

coloman. [After a moment.] I will see her. 

aladar goes to the archway and beckons. A 
veiled woman enters and stands silently before 
COLOMAN. ALADAR departs. COLOMAN looks 
fixedly at the woman who unveils. It is ILONA. 
coloman. [After a pause.] You are my brother’s 
wife. 

ilona. Ilona. 

coloman. [As if enjoying the melody of the name.] 
Ilona . . Well? 
ilona. Coloman . . 
coloman. Sister . . 


102 


COLOMAN 


[act iv 


ilona. You know why I have come. 

COLOMAN. Were you not afraid to come? 

ILONA. I had with me my maiden. Your Guyon loves 
her. So . . 

COLOMAN. Soh? 

ilona. Last night did three in your service bereave 
me of husband and son. [ Breathlessly .] You have not 
killed them? 

COLOMAN. No. 

ilona. [In the same tone.'] You will not kill them? 

COLOMAN. I may do. 

ilona. [Slowly.] You shall not. 

COLOMAN. [With a smile.] You are very certain of 
your advocacy. 

ilona. I am pleading for what I love to a man whom 
I . . admire . . 

coloman. Why should I be merciful? 
ilona. You are too great to need not to be merciful. 
coloman. What will it profit me to be merciful? 
ilona. What it profits any man to be great . . 
coloman. I mean, are you an envoy of submission 
from Otto Csupor? 

ilona. We are not intimates, Otto Csupor and I. 
Had my counsels had the entrance of his to my hus- 
band’s ear, we had rested content in our Dalmatia. 
I distrust him; and you — beware of him. I am come 
here neither as an envoy nor as an ambitious woman, 
but as your sister and the mother of Bela. 
coloman. Where is the wife of Almos? 
ilona. I think she died last night. 
coloman. [Keenly.] Last night? 
ilona. In her husband’s tent. [Stepping quickly 
to the table and laying her hand on the gauntlet.] This 
is my little Bela’s gauntlet! Then you have had him 
here — before you — to judge him? [In an agony.] 
Coloman, what have' you done with him? 

coloman. I confided him to your maiden’s lover — 
to my Guyon . . 

ilona. Thank God! Thank God! 


ACT IV] 


COLOMAN 


103 


coloman. You must not expect me to be wholly 
merciful to him. He is too dangerous in these times. 
ilona. What! A little child? 

coloman. How was my brother so strong in this 
fourth . . fraternity? Because it was your little son 
who inspired his levies. How perilous an enemy is a 
man inspired! It must not be again. 

ilona. It shall not be again. You will give me the 
boy and we will go away together . . and unto you, 
peace . . 

COLOMAN. Whither? 
ilona. To Corfu. 
coloman. Ah, your home . . 

ilona. In its golden hills is terraced a villa of silver, 
looking down upon purple water. There may one 
forget and live for a child. Terrible enemies! — a 
broken woman and an unknowing child . . I will 
tell him of your greatness and he shall love you. 

coloman. [Bitterly.] Love me — till when? Till 
he leaves your lap. Ilona, when he moves among men 
and they tell him of what he might have been, it will 
stir his ambition against my seed, and thereof wars 
and death. 

ilona. What is in your mind then, concerning him? 
coloman. My wife, remembering her son, would 
have him slain. 

ilona. What? And she a mother! O my lord, con- 
sider what it is to a mother to see the little warm, rosy 
feet turned cold and grey — the little soft, plumpy 
hands wan and withered — the eyes . . blind! Last 
night he pitied roses for being blind . . 
coloman. No more, no more . . 
ilona. Spare him, my lord, as I spared you. 
coloman. How spared me? 
ilona. Yes. Last night. 

COLOMAN. Ilona . . Ilona! 

ilona. You were in the tent . . I knew you at your 
very coming! 

coloman. You knew that and kept me secret? 


104 


COLOMAN 


[act rv 


ilona. I did. 

COLOMAN. A word — and they had killed me! 

ILONA. Less than a word. 
coloman. Why did you save me? 
ilona. O Coloman, do not ask me. Only believe that 
it was so, and, for that, give me my son. 

coloman. Ilona, tell me. As you want your boy, 
tell me. 

ilona. 0 Coloman! In the lanes, beyond the city, 
there is a lonely shrine . . 

There is a short , intense pause. Then coloman 
takes her by the hands , drawing her to him. 
coloman. Say my name. 
ilona. Coloman. 
coloman. Whisper it. 
ilona. Coloman . . 

COLOMAN. Again . . 
ilona. Coloman . . 

He folds her in his arms and they kiss. 
coloman. O flaming perfume! Lips drenched in 
Persian gardens! 
ilona. My lover . . 

coloman. [ Drawing his hand over her forehead and 
hair.] Dear, starry brow . . 
ilona. Why do you tremble? 

coloman. Now are the skeins of ourselves unravel- 
ling, red shuttle to red, gold to gold, fire to fire — 
ilona. I to you. 

coloman. 0 kindly Fates, to have wound our wools 
so tidily! Ilona, kiss me . . as of old. [ She kisses 
him.] Ay, so! 

ilona. These ten years run to seed . . 
coloman. Nay, but it was you . . Why did you 
cease coming to me? 

ilona. I was afraid. Oh, kiss me, — my hair, my 
lips, my throat . . 

coloman. Why were you afraid? 

ilona. Kiss me deep in the shadows of my hair . . 


ACT IV] 


COLOMAN 


105 


coloman. My lips cannot pierce so far. It is an 
impenetrable forest. Oh, your fragrance! 

ilona. Forgive me, forgive me, Coloman! But I 
was afraid . . I was your brother’s wife. Daily and 
daily I should have feared your eyes . . 

coloman. Oh, those nights, those nights . . Do you 
remember? 

ilona. The shrine was dewy in the darkness. 
coloman. And your lips dewy upon mine! 
ilona. The night sang about us! 
coloman. As now, as now. The breath of the gar- 
den wanders through the curtains. Come. Let us 
look into the garden. 

They ascend into the loggia, coloman flings 
aside the curtains. The stars glitter fiercely 
above the trees. The lamps in the room seem 
to grow pale. 

ilona. Coloman! Listen . . It is the nightingale. 
coloman. How he spills his soul into the starlight! 
[ Crushing her passionately to him.'] Ilona! 
ilona. [ Freeing herself.] No. We shall die of it. 
coloman. Come. Sit beside me. [ They sit on one 
of the couches in the loggia.] Give me your hands, 
your hands, Ilona. 

ilona. Did the trees shiver? 

coloman. [ Dropping her hands and passing his 
fingers lightly over her features as a blind man would.] 
I cannot accustom myself to you yet. That you should 
have awaked my passion and then have fled from the 
threshold of its waking. You have been cruel to me, 
Ilona. Those first months of desolation — how they 
charred me! And then, after the old Saint’s passing, 
your message — the message of the woman who would 
reveal herself, not to the Bishop, but only to the 
King! So I pinnacled myself, and you did not come — 
you never came. Your messenger, when I sent him 
to you afterwards, told me you were dead — of the 
plague, in a rude hut — a peasant girl ! Why is your 
gaze so puzzled? 


106 


COLOMAN 


[ACT IV 


ilona. I never sent to you. I never tried to send 
to you after . . after I gave up coming. I knew, then, 
that my desire was fulfilled . . 

coloman. Now are my eyes unsealed! Gradually I 
see . . I was tricked into the crown! I have been 
used by a lackey who guessed too much and has bat- 
tened on his guess. 0 Szvela, omnipotent devil, what 
malleable metal was I to your hammer of lies! 
ilona. And now . . ? 

coloman. Well, and what now? We must steal 
away . . together. Men shall say of Coloman that he 
vanished in a night. 

ilona. And of Ilona that she vanished in a night. 
coloman. It was you I wanted — not the crown. 
This wormy grandeur is a mask of gold on a dead face. 
Now let the crown go! For us waits an idyll, Ilona, 
an idyll that we are both young enough yet to live. 
A time of peace in the Phaeacian pastures among the 
Phaeacian hills . . [He kisses her softly , tenderly .] 
Ilona . . I, with my old poets and my old dreams, 
turning from some beautiful page to your beautiful 
face. And you, broidering, happiness in your eyes, 
and on your lips, peace. And, perhaps, between us, 
a third . . 

ilona. [ Wonderingly .] A third? 

coloman. Our child. 

ilona. [With a bright smile.] Bela? 

COLOMAN. [Puzzled.] Bela . . ? 
ilona. Yes. Did you not realize? Oh, did you not 
realize — ? 

COLOMAN. [Dully.] What? 
ilona. He is your son. 
coloman. Christ . . ! 

Leaping up, he dashes down into the well of the 
room, ilona follows. 

ilona. Coloman! Ah! What have you done to him? 
coloman. [Turning on her.] I have put out his 
eyes. 

She shrieks wildly and, in the stillness that 


ACT IV] 


COLOMAN 


107 


ensues , the wail of a child in torment rises 
through the palace, ilona falls along the steps. 
coloman bends over her, burying his face in 
her hair. He babbles to her almost childishly. 
Then busella enters swiftly. 
busella. Coloman, the rebels — ! 

She stops, leaning against the bronze doors, 
gazing at ilona and coloman. 
coloman. Ilona ! Ilona, my beloved ! Bela, my son ! 
My little son! Mine, mine, mine! 

There comes a gradual noise and a clashing from 
the distance. Then szvela appears, running 
breathlessly from the gardens, shouting as he 
runs. 

simon szvela. [As he bounds up the steps.] My 
lord! My lord! Csupor has broken into the city! 
Arm ! Arm ! 

He stops amazed, the alarm frozen on his lips 
by the scene at his feet. 

coloman. [ Monotonously .] My son! My little son! 
While peal upon peal of bewildered bells bursts 
into the night. 


C O L O M A N 


ACT V 


ACT V 

SCENE: The ruined Monastery of St. Sebastian 
above Pesth. 

The old refectory. Three enormous , fungoid walls 
enclosing a space of deep grass. In that opposite 
to the spectator is a huge, frowning gateway 
looking down across a valley brilliant with 
sunlight in the midst of which rise the glitter- 
ing spires of Pesth. There is a crumbling gal- 
lery in the left wall reached by a broken flight 
of stairs. In the wall to the spectator’s right 
is a small archway giving on to fields: while 
on the right of the foreground stands the abbot’s 
seat carved in stone, raised from the ground by 
a few steps. It is covered with mosses and 
purple wild flowers. The refectory is sinister 
with shadow although chequered with occasional 
lights from the torn windows . There is a sense 
of doom and mould over the ruin. Sheep are 
browsing beyond the gateway. An old shepherd 
is seated on the throne, taking a thorn out of 
his foot. His son leans out from the top of the 
gallery stairs, birds-nesting. Two large crows 
disturbed by him sweep across the space with a 
mournful cawing. 

the shepherd. A prickle in the ball o’ my great 
toe! [ Calling to his son.] Did you not hear me? Let 
the nests be. Beelzebub singe those crows! They caw 
as I have heard your grandmother, and she — God 

108 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


109 


purge her! — was a witch. Sure, they are evil 
things for they fatten on the ruins of a holy house. 
I'll warrant there are black gloryings here o’ nights. 
His SON. Father, they have settled on the sheep! 
the shepherd. Ay. They are delving in the wool 
after the ticks. Would to St. Sebastian they had set- 
tled on me! Yet it may be that fingers are the dis- 
pensation of Genesis . . Look, here’s a yellow lizard 
lurching himself up the steps into the sun. How his 
little green eyes watch me! Nine men o’ ten would 
tell you ’twas a lizard, but I know he’s a fiend. So, 
i’ Peter’s name! [He throws his cap at it .] An honest 
man has a short way with Satan. 

his son. [Who has come down.] Here’s the nest, 
father. 

the shepherd. [Leaving his seat and taking an egg 
out of the nest between his finger and thumb.] A 
devil in the shell! [Holding it to his nose.] A strong 
devil ! 

his son. Shall I scotch him, father? 
the shepherd. Softly. This crackable origin is his 
dungeon. It must not be broken, or he will escape. 
Nor must it be hatched or he will come forth. Here’s 
a question for cardinals! How can we finish him? 
his son. Eat him, father. 

the shepherd. [Dubiously.] That might be very 
well, but is it i’ the Scriptures? A swine can swallow 
a devil but can a man? Well . . Put him in your 
pouch. Your mother shall eat him. A devil is at 
home in a woman. 

Here four enter through the gateway — the 
miller, wringing his hands, with else: and 
with them, the tanner, and ilona, gowned as 
a woman of the people. 
else. A moment’s rest . . 

the miller. What shall I do for a new mill? The 
storehouse was ablaze. I could smell the roasting corn 
half a mile out of the city . . 

the tanner. [Wrathfully, shaking his fist in the 


110 


COLOMAN 


[act v 


direction of Pesth .] Would these two contentious 

brothers were struggling in my tan pit! 

else. [ Comforting her father .] We have got safe 
away. Others . . Darya was killed in the street . . 
and her lad. [ Covering her face with her hands.] 
Where was God? 

the tanner. [Bitterly.] Where was Coloman? 

THE SHEPHERD. What’s afoot, gentles? 

else. The city is taken! Csupor’s Magyars are at 
work sacking it, running through the streets like 
flaming oil. The King’s men are scattered. The 
King — vanished in a night! 

ilona. [Seated on the steps of the throne.] Coloman 
the Poor! 

the tanner. ’Tis Almos whom I pity. There is a 
tale, noised among the fugitives, how that, when Duke 
Almos and the little prince Bela had both been made 
blind, King Coloman ran shrieking through the corri- 
dors of the palace, crying aloud that he had blinded 
his own son. They tell that, in pleading for her son’s 
life, the Duchess Ilona revealed so much of her shame 
as the King had never guessed. Think you, then, of 
what Coloman has bereft his brother: his throne, his 
wife, his son, his sight! 

the miller. Yea, neighbour — terrible, terrible! 

the tanner. And it is whispered now that Colo- 
man is fled, wither no one knows, taking with him the 
blind Bela. 

else. Poor, bookish King! God has been cruel to 
you. 

the miller. Y’are a good lass — sweet as millet- 
custard. 

ilona. [With bowed head.] Seared son, father 
more seared! 

else. [Softly.] Who are you that weep for Colo- 
man? 

ilona. [Raising her head and looking ELSE 
straightly in the eyes.] One that touched his life. 

else. Are you from the palace? 


ACT y] 


COLOMAN 


111 


ilona. [ Nodding .] Lately. I was a great man’s 
mistress. 

THE TANNER. Ha, a courtesan? 

ilona. [Dully.'] Yes. A courtesan. 

THE SHEPHERD. You have fled from troubles to the 
habitation of troubles. It does house devils. Why, 
this very day before dawn, I heard Him — laughing 
and crying up yonder. [Drawing his rags about him 
with a shudder.] It is a horrible place. 

A straggling party of townsfolk pass across the 
entrance shouting to one another. 

VOICES AMONG them. Hurry! Hurry! The black 
Magyars ! 

else. [As if urging him to resume their journey.] 
Father, they are fleeing to the hills . . 

ilona. The riband winds away! 

the tanner. [Pacing up and down impatiently.] 
For all his great brain Coloman has shown here but 
little wisdom. ’Twas a lack-thought thing to send 
my lord Eguon along with the Crusaders — to protect 
the countryside at the expense of the capital! Colo- 
man was not rich enough in’s sword to succour the 
two. And he preferred the poor of the villages before 
the prosperous of the city. It was the king dwindling 
back into the priest. Scratch a priest and he will 
bleed milk! 

the shepherd. [Turning to ilona, with a leer.] 
Why do you leave your fortune? Your trade were 
safe. 

ilona. It were my death to stay, and yet, poor fool 
of instinct, I go. My husband rides with Otto Csupor; 
and my great man is — who knows where? I have 
known the touch of little fingers . . 0 God, that I 

had been barren! I do think I am the absolute of 
tragedy. Were my heart an open alphabet it would 
divert you to madness. In the beginning were a man 
and a woman fatal to each other: [her head falls 
again upon her breast] in the end . . 

There is a sudden rustling and coloman, un- 


112 


COLOMAN 


[act v 


kempt and wild-eyed — his clothes tom and 
muddied — appears at the top of the stairs lead- 
ing by the hand bela, whose eyes are bandaged 
with a black kerchief. The phrase dies on 
ilona’s lips. The shepherd seizes the miller’s 
arm , pointing upwards. A fear seems to have 
fallen upon the group. 
the shepherd. I told you ! I told you ! 
the miller. [ Clasping his hands.'] Ave Maria, 

plena gratia . . 

THE TANNER. What haggard leper is this? 

coloman comes slowly down among them. He 
apparently neither sees nor hears them. 
else, [i Suddenly .] It is the King! [ Throwing her- 
self on her knees before him.] O my great lord, we 
were anhungered for you ! Bestead your city for 
your fame’s sake. Now we are saved! 

coloman. Go to. The night-jar spins and chuckles 
in the dead wood. [He looks about him, proudly puz- 
zled.] Who are these folk? 

the tanner. [Bitterly.] Your too loyal citizens, 
unhoused — for you ! 

coloman. I will think upon’t. [Smiling, with the 
air of one conveying a great secret.] Softly, we are 
with the dead . . 

Dropping the boy's hand, he tiptoes round the 
group laying his finger mysteriously upon the 
mouth of each. They shrink back at his touch. 
bela, bereft of support stretches out his arms 
with a pitiful cry. ilona rushes to him and, 
kneeling by his side, folds him to her. 
ilona. . . my second travail! 

coloman. [Turning sharply.] Who spoke? I have 
loved that voice. Once it foretold me to myself and I 
fled into the wilderness, [ilona hides her face against 
bela.] There is a moving darkness about the boy . . 
is’t a woman? 

the tanner. [Grimly.] I think it is the Duchess 
Ilona. 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


113 


COLOMAN. He found her, in a hut, dead of the 
plague; and so she's no matter. Guyon, is supper 
ready? Sirs, I have led men to battle. I have been a 
scholar in Latin; and have opened up the veins of a 
rose. [To the tanner.] Are you an apothecary? 
the tanner. [Humouring him.] I am, Sir. 
COLOMAN. [Eagerly.] Can you give sight to the 
blind? 

THE TANNER. That can I. 

COLOMAN. Then you are worm no longer but gaudy, 
an you will. Look you, this child . . [He glances round 
apologetically, almost fearfully.] A misfortune, good 
my masters, a misfortune. [He returns to the tanner, 
his voice hoarse with tenseness.] Put back his eyes, 
and all the pine forests of Hungary shall be your 
freehold. [Angrily thrusting the man from him.] 
Clown! You are playing with me! Y'are a tanner. 
I can smell your trade. [Then as if fired with a sud- 
den hope.] Was not Luke an apothecary? O beloved 
physician . . 

He clasps his hands above his head in mute im- 
ploration. The onlookers watch him intently. 
the shepherd. [Profoundly.] Even a king’s brain 
can come to homespun . . 

ilona. O little Bela, to think that I was not with 
you! 

bela. Mother, I shall never see you again. 
ilona. Sweet flesh of my flesh! The very dust is 
my portion . . 

bela. Hold me so, mother, for always . . 
ilona. I am the sorriest mother i’ the world . . 
bela. I did not think anything could hurt so much . . 
ilona. Bela ! 

else. [Turning away, her hands clutching her 
breast.] They say that a child is God’s mercy to a 
woman: it is His cruelty. 

coloman. [Realising the presence of ilona but not 
her identity, to her, sorrowfully.] Ay, is it not sad, 
madam, to see this scanted boy? Have you a son? 


114 


COLOMAN 


[ACT V 


ilona. [ Lifting her tear-seamed face .] Is your 
brain so heavy-drugged with one day and one night 
that you know not . . me? 

COLOMAN. Excellent! But I have not the where- 
withal to make you merry. [He stares at her a moment, 
askance. Then his chained mind makes one desperate 
leap towards sanity .] I think we have been lovers. 
But your cheeks should be fretted from the lips of 
worms, and your brow pocked, for you died of the 
plague. Yet the tears of the dead are not palpable! 
I see you in the midst of a room of lamps overlooking 
a garden of nightingales. How long since! And a 
woman comes through the bronze doors, dark and 
fierce and old. And you lie along the steps, 
Madonna . . [Then, at last, he remembers. Embrac- 
ing her, he raises the duchess to her feet with the 
little boy clinging piteously to her, and draws her 
head down to his breast with a despairing cry.] Woe 
unto us, Ilona! 

the tanner. I cannot look upon this . . 

the miller. Nor I. This is life with its mill-sails 
broken . . 

else. That we could comfort them! But they look 
so . . dread. 

the tanner. Let us go. I have a cousin in 
Zagrab . . [To else.] Let your father lean upon me. 

else. How good you are! 

THE MILLER. To Zagrab — to Zagrab! 

And the three vanish through the archway, 
hurrying suddenly. 

ILONA. Could love but medicine love! Where grows 
herb-of -healing for our ill of bane-berry? O Coloman! 

coloman. Love has despoiled us of ourselves. We 
are as smoke of seed-blow — ghosts of ghosts, dis- 
inherited, lost! 

ilona. Your arms have fallen from me like two 
shadows . . 

coloman. To be thus, and this! Have I shot an 
arrow into Heaven and slain God? 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


115 


the shepherd. [With malevolent contempt .] You 
parchment King! 
coloman. Let me be . . 

the shepherd. Like all bookmen you are tallow to a 
hot woman. Lapping up melancholy while your enemy 
thieves your sop! Yonder lies a goodly city — is it 
yours? Yonder flee good, lusty citizens — are they 
your men and women? God aid them, they believed 
in you! 

coloman. Silence your cruelty. What are you that 
you should sting? Leave us. 

the shepherd. What is dignity without a sword? A 
bed-louse! [Shaking his trembling arms impotently in 
the air.] Oh, that I were young . . I would have my 
stone for Goliath. [To his son.] Come, boy. We are 
nothing to this great man. Gather the sheep. I am 
old and of the earth . . 

his son. [Running on before, shrilly.] Hai! Hai! 
Hai! 

the shepherd. . .and tormented of many devils . . 

And they, also, disappear beneath the arch. 
coloman. Let not even the ashes slip too swiftly 
through our fingers. Our silken purposes are not 
severed, they are but tangled. The weft is still to 
weave ! 

ilona. My heart is broken. I am only a soul. 
coloman. Hush. How came you here? 
ilona. After it was found that you were fled with 
our son, I followed, begging this vesture of a courte- 
san — how meet for me! And when I could not come 
upon you, nor yet learn any tidings of you, I was 
caught up into the whirl of the fugitives and carried 
hither. Is it chance that draws metal to metal? 

coloman. Is this to be our peace together, we three? 
Are these the Phaeacian hills? 

ilona. There is no pastoral happiness for us ever- 
more on earth: a king dishevelled, a child blinded, a 
woman hunted of her eyeless husband. 


116 


COLOMAN 


[act v 


coloman. In very deed, then, our guilt is public to 
my brother ! 

ilona. Otto Csupor, when he had achieved the city, 
straightway delivered Almos ; and, when they were 
come up from the dungeon, they were met by your 
royal Scribe, Aladar Maroty, who, having acceded to 
them, interpreted them the rumour blown through every 
door. 

coloman. Of our . . obsession? So, in my distrac- 
tion, I babbled! 

ilona. And what winged quicksilver was that bab- 
bling! 

coloman. And now, say you, they are a-cry after 
you? 

ilona. Yes, Coloman. 

coloman. To what end? 

ilona. To slay our son here, whom you already have 
half slain. 

coloman. No, no, no . . Be gentle with me. Would 
Almos slay what he has so greatly loved? — for he did 
love him, did he not? [Clasping BELA in his arms.] O 
my son! [To ilona.] And you — what of you? 

ilona. Me he would make the kept harlot of his 
camp. 

coloman. Ilona ! 

ilona. Mary, turret of Ivory, be my refuge! 

coloman. For the while you are securest here. The 
fleeing masses will be cut down by cavalry. My citizens 
cut down by cavalry — and I, an onlooker ! Guyon was 
too young and I had sent away old Eguon. That left 
but Coloman, and he, for a day and for a night, vanished 
from himself. And now, one limb of that poor beast, 
his mind, is broken, and he cannot go o’ three legs. 
O Pesth, my fair city! 0 my people! I have been a 
womanish king to you. In my supreme hour my 
genius cracked like an eggshell, and, at the last, I was 
only of the red earth — mortal, human, common ! 

ilona. Hyssop your heart. For a brief minute we 
are a family: for a brief minute I am your wife. And 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


117 


it falls to a wife to be of good cheer and to uplift her 
lord’s head in his adversity. Therefore let us be calm 
and homely, and talk one to the other very simply, as 
we were children. 

COLOMAN. Two children at play with a blind child! 

ilona. [ Taking his hands as they kneel above bela 
who is playing in the grass at their feet.] And we, my 
lord, are almost blinded from our poor tears . . [To 
bela.] What is it, sweeting? 

bela. What is moving under the earth? 

COLOMAN. Under the earth? 

bela. Beneath my hand. It has been moving for a 
long time, in a line . . 

ilona. ’Tis a little blind brother of yours — a mole. 

bela. [Turning towards coloman.] Did you blind 
him? Was he, too, your son? 

For a long pause coloman and ilona regard 
each other. Then a confused shouting arises and 
sounds of hurrying, as a vast stream of populace 
crosses the space of the archway. There is every 
evidence of panic and uncontrollable terror in 
their movements. 

several persons. For your lives! For your lives! 
Nothing is safe! 

One member of the crowd, the wool-dyer, seeing 
there are people in the ruins enters excitedly. 

the wool-dyer. Up with you, friends! Queen 
Busella has left the Citadel. Lord Rakovscy’s phalanx 
is broken. All is lost! 

He dashes back into the crowd which presently 
straggles to an end. The noise dies away. 

coloman. I think that the world must sound so to 
the dead in graves . . 

ilona. Truly, the city has been stricken at very 
heart. What ailed the proud armies of Coloman, my 
lord? 

coloman. The love of Coloman for Ilona. A dark 
disease, O priestess of destruction! 


118 


COLOMAN 


[act v 


ilona. [In a low voice.] In the end was the woman 
fatal to the man . . 

coloman. Busella has fought to the bitter doom. 
Hers was the man’s spirit. She was more my mate 
than you: yet it is you I love, not she. O God, solve 
me these opposites! 

ilona. Even God cannot solve love. 
bela. [Suddenly.] Mother, some horrible thing is 
coming. It does not walk and it does not creep . . but 
I can feel the air shudder . . Mother, hide me from it! 

ilona. [Hiding the boy’s face in her lap: rapidly, 
to coloman.] The child is right. Someone is coming. 
Do you not hear it? It is like a man, panting. Colo- 
man, who is it? 

As they wait, listening, SIMON szvela appears in 
the archway. He has been hurrying. He has 
thrown a long, enveloping, green cloak over his 
rich tunic, with the cap of a Venetian merchant. 
He stands for a moment, uncertain, outside the 
ruin. Then ilona, overcome with fear, gives 
vent to a half-stifled cry, and the chancellor 
starts and enters the enclosure. He stops, amazed. 
COLOMAN. [Bitterly.] Well met, my lord choir- 
master ! 

SIMON szvela. That we are met is well, but thus 
met, ill. [Looking round him.] Is this the Bishop’s 
oratory or his burrow? 

coloman. Tell me, are you scholarly in the instincts 
of animals? 

SIMON SZVELA. Why, very well, I think. 
coloman. Does not the red rat leave falling houses? 
simon szvela. No more than the ecclesiastical mag- 
got, in some old library, leaves pagan vellum — while 
’tis sweet i’ the mouth. [Looking at coloman very 
curiously.] Yet rat and rabbit may have a last word 
together. [He seats himself for a moment on the steps 
of the abbot’s throne, and surveys his companions with 
a cynical geniality.] What a change of weeds and wel- 
fare has this little company known since a king and 


COLOMAN 


119 


ACT V] 


his chancellor went a-mumming! Into what Egypt 
does this holy family flee? For my own part, I make 
for Venice, thence to Rome, where I may yet howl my 
“Praise God” on a Jew’s harp in Peter’s chair — ha- 
ha-ha! — unless . . unless what, Madonna? 

ilona. [ Watching him : fascinated: her voice dry 
and heavy.] This time you are not come for my boy . . 

Simon szvela. No. He is past my necessities. Verily, 
I am a Pope i’ the egg, unless I can work anew my old 
miracle . . 

COLOMAN. What was that, scoffer? 

simon szvela. My especial miracle, sir — the raising 
of a man from the dead. 

COLOMAN. [To ilona.] When there were carp in my 
fountain, this fellow was a potter of nightingales . . 

ilona. I gather your intent, conjurer, but here’s a 
pass beyond your magic. 

simon szvela. By your leave, taffeta. [Rising.] 
My lord, yesterday and you held Hungary in fee, today 
and you are but a prince of tinkers. Know you what 
has happened in the city? 

coloman. It is a tale that is told, a wind that is 
passed. 

simon szvela. We are a sick man dying because the 
physician’s mule has untimely cast a shoe. Guyon 
Rakovscy fights like a Paladin, but the troops in their 
agony have cried for “Coloman” — for “Coloman”; And 
Coloman was with his . . 

coloman. Simon ! 

simon szvela. Had some privy devil but whispered 
me to seek the lost jewel of our fortunes in this broken 
casket, we had held firm till Gabriel Eguon’s coming. 
For he comes, sure and swift: it may be within the 
hour. Yet we perish for immediancy! Mahoun and 
Termagant ! Cannot you see that if you go into battle 
even now you are the rallying-point? You would trans- 
mute the field! 

coloman. Go you to Venice, Simon . . I am in the 
autumn of my ambition. 


120 


COLOMAN 


[act v 


simon szvela. Y’are sere with stale passion ! To me, 
if not to you, exile will come cold! Has my child 
outgrown my teaching? ’Tis the old indecisions! 
Action was ever your text, my lord Bishop, but your 
sermon never ventured beyond evasion. 

COLOMAN. And your evasion, friend, it would seem, 
were Venice. [He opens szvela’s cloak and discloses 
several fat bags of gold in his belt .] I am pleased to 
see that my Chancellor has not been improvident ! Are 
these your “monies of King Coloman”? 

simon szvela. A mere picking . . My schemes, look 
you, change with the weather. Like the swallow i’ the 
madrigal I was for the south, but the finding you pro- 
longs my summer. Besides, the moons of Italy breed 
distempers . . 

coloman. But not the moons of Venice, Simon! Go 
you to Venice. 

simon szvela. Whether I prevail with you or no, 
I shall not now beyond Hungary. If you cannot drive 
a dead horse, you must sell his carcass. [His voice 
and manner changed: imploringly.'] O Coloman, for 
God’s sake, be compelled by me ! 

coloman. I think you forget my unhappiness. I 
have read of Greek kings who were much troubled of 
God in their house from the beginning to the end. 
But upon me, in one night, is fallen a fatality of sor- 
row. See, I am visited of grey hairs — the foliage of 
my greyer thoughts. Marked you never the great oak- 
tree before the church door at Gran, how it is bound 
with iron chains to keep it from bursting? It was I 
who bound that tree, Simon! Would that in like man- 
ner I had bound my heart . . 

simon szvela. A wise man should feel with his head, 
not his heart; else he were better born a jelly-fish. ’A 
has no back-bone! 

coloman. There happens a time to all men when they 
may set their spent horoscopes to immutable sleep. It 
is nothing to be busy; it is everything to feel. Do you 
remember the Virgil lots which No-Man took in his 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


121 


garden beneath the Pleiades? From that day I was 
lost, because I was no more afraid; and they who have 
not any more fear have not any more wisdom. But 
now have I met fear . . [ Indicating ILONA and bela.] 

Henceforward these are my kingdom. Their wrongs, 
which I have wrought, master me. Their forgiveness, 
the which I beg, shall become my winter ambition. 

simon szvela. What is this weeping, gay woman and 
this blind basilisk to the empire you so wanton with? 
Has Hungary no soul? Further, Eguon, Rakovscy, 
myself . . Sir, would you betray your friends? 

COLOMAN. I am too burned to steal you any more 
roast pippins from the fire. [ Looking up with a whim- 
sical smile. He has seated himself on the steps.] Man 
is like the Persian silk-worm, who, when he has lived 
his fill, spins himself a yellow sanctuary in which to 
philosophize. And there, wrapt within himself, his 
thoughts take the colour o’ their compass, and he de- 
sires no more his empire of mulberry leaves. [ His 
voice becoming grave.] This doom, my lord, is my yel- 
low sanctuary. [Wearily.] It may be that my brain 
is a torn parchment . . [Then vehemently.] But this 
I know, Szvela, I shall not back with you, by God’s 
agony! 

simon szvela. I suppose there are some would con- 
sider you a sad figure. 

ilona. [To szvela, with proud bitterness.] Be 
kindly to us, black spirit! You carry a Milanese knife. 
Deafen our ears with death. 

simon szvela. [Turning to her.] And you, rosa 
mystica . . What power is it in you soft women that 
can so crumple up the iron politics of men? You, with 
whom in all my life, I have spoken barely ten words, 
have been absolute to destroy me ! What most fantastic 
brain would have dreamed of your hooded freedoms o’ 
nights with a hoodwinked priest, who knew you as 
something dark from the darkness — and no more. I 
have watched you of old from the organ, at Sunday 
mass . . praying, endlessly praying . . Oh, that I had 


122 


COLOMAN 


[ACT V 


known what secret lay snug behind that clicking 
rosary ! 

ilona. You could not have. It was love . . 

simon szvela. I guessed the fact, but not the woman. 
Love to me, as to the mathematician, is detestation: 
it is too incalculable. To hang your prosperities on a 
lover’s actions is to go hang! I had my pieces before 
me on the chess-board. I knew to a square whither 
they would move; and, lo! a hand, unseen, unforeseen, 
scatters the pattern of my pawns and spoils my game. 
For which I love not this love. 

COLOMAN. And now the one measure of your mathe- 
matics is to show you the straightest line to Venice . . 

simon szvela. [ Stung to savage mockery.'] Blessed 
are they that are outcast, that go a-whoring, that are 
demented, for they cannot be brought lower than they 
are! 

coloman. We are none of us but the shadows of our 
fates . . 

simon szvela. You pricked bubble! And I have bal- 
anced you on my reed for so long i’ the air . . I was 
born with a king’s brain, you with a king’s opportunity. 
I had to absorb your insignificant ambitions into the 
mosaic of my imperial self. But for me you might 
have died an old Bishop and smelled of sanctity beneath 
a Latin epitaph on an onion-stone. Whereas now Time 
will lay you by in the spices of laws and battles and 
legends of disaster — because once we two talked to- 
gether in a garden. Yet of us have great things hap- 
pened in Hungary, O my partner, manifestations of 
power and power and again power! And in all this, 
I was — that I was ! 

coloman. [ Turning and advancing menacingly upon 
him , white with passion.] Dog and slave! There is in 
these fingers that could find your throat! O Heaven, 
give me the natural rage of a man! This vulture has 
followed my true self from wilderness to wilderness, 
smelling my sickness of life, flapping his sinister wings 
over my doomed soul. And here he waits to see me 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


123 


die! Come, father of lies, behold your children and 
grow pale . . You lied to me of my beloved, you lied 
to me of her message, you lied to me of her death. O 
God, that a moving, breathing thing so foully slimy 
should wear the likeness of Thyself! Why is there no 
angel, guardian of a man’s ears? You have encom- 
passed me about with the four walls of evil. Evil have 
been your ends, evil your means; evil at board, evil 
in council. That tryst of blood in the Cathedral, the 
fackel of so much civil war, was authored and finished 
by you — I but the miserable mask and mouth-piece, 
stitched together with my own conceits! You turned 
me foreign to my friends and dishumoured me from 
their honest counsels. The continual slow dropping of 
your misanthropy froze my human arteries. Even those 
who loved me . . Matthias, Matthias . . [i Suddenly .] 
Who sits i’ the abbot’s chair? Are you come from 
Heaven at my calling? 

ilona. Why do you look so, my lord? 

COLOMAN. [ Drawing his hand across his forehead.'] 
No, no — no, no ! I thought that I was companioned by 
an old friend’s spirit. Such things are not! Yet there 
were tears on his cheeks, and in his eyes, tears . . 
Was it? Was it not? Which is the ghost and which 
is I? 

bela. [ Putting his hand into coloman’s.] Of whom 
do you speak? I have only heard three voices . . 

COLOMAN. [ Bending over him in passionate grief.] 
0 all and to come of lamentation! Kiss me . . Let 
me guide your lips to my cheek — no, no, no! I dare 
not! 

bela. Father . . 

coloman. Take him to you, Ilona, for God’s sake! 
[ilona takes the boy in her arms and, sitting on the 
ground, gradually hushes him to sleep, sheltering him 
from the noises of the ensuing scenes. To szvela.] 
Now, enginer of tragedy, I will be swift with you! 
This fledgeling, this frail boy, my son, has borne the 
full brunt of your most mischievous inventions. You 


124 


COLOMAN 


[act v 


it was who sowed in me the thought to steal him, and, 
after that, the thought to blind him! My son! That 
this broken pillar were my brazier and these fingers 
my burning irons to hiss their way into your unkindly 
sockets! [ Seizing him by the throat .] Apes and pea- 
cocks! [As they grapple .] Y’are on the Rialto, 
Simon! The Gondolier o’ the Styx waits for his obol! 
[He throws him to the ground .] So fall skittles! 

Here five soldiers, bloody and panting, enter 
from the archway and pass across the space, 
conversing brokenly. They go out by the small 
arch to the right. Simultaneously others are 
seen hurrying beyond the archway in the same 
direction as the earlier fugitives. The far-off 
clashings heard previously are now grown louder 
and more continuous. SIMON szvela clambers 
to his feet, choking and gasping. Then busella, 
surrounded by guyon rakovscy, Stephen, John 
CSABA and the captains of the bodyguard, enter 
in breathless haste. 

busella. The traitors are endebted to their English 
mercenaries ! 

gvyon rakovscy. And to their Picard bowmen. 
[Plucking the shaft of an arrow from his targe and 
flinging it to the ground .] Here’s French goosequill . . 

JOHN csaba. [Peering at the group in the enclosure.'] 
These should be known faces . . 

busella. [Coming forward.] Coloman ! Coloman . . 

coloman. Once, madam, I was he. 

john csaba. [To szvela, maliciously.] Is it you, 
my lord Chancellor? 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. At last, O my King! Gird you, 
for we are beset today! 

coloman. I can catch rats, Guyon . . 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. [To busella.] Madam, the King 
is ill . . 

busella. [Looking at ilona.] And there is his 
sickness . . 

The two women silently regard each other. 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


125 


Stephen. [ Whispering , to szvela.] Wherefore this 
green cloak, sweet my lord? 

Simon szvela. [ Opening his cloak.] Because it has 
a black lining . . 

He turns and , passing through the soldiery , walks 
rapidly away to the left of the main archway. 

JOHN csaba. [ Looking after him.] Soh, is his broth 
grown cold? 

COLOMAN. [Gently to rakovscy.] I am awaited, am 
I not? 

GUYON rakovscy. We have awaited you hungrily 
these many fierce hours! 

COLOMAN. I meant not of you, dear warrior . . but 
of my Omega. 

busella. Sirs, we waste our occasion in this mouldy 
trap. Let us reshape our field till we can hear the 
horsemen’s horns of my lord Eguon. 

JOHN csaba. What if the messenger died by the 
road? Had we not better entreat a parley? ’Twould 
commit us to nothing. 

guyon rakovscy. Parley? A pulpit counsel! [To 
COLOMAN.] My lord, I kneel to you. Fight, fight! 

COLOMAN. [Sorrowfully.] O Guyon, simplify me 
to myself . . 

A wounded officer with a drawn sword enters 
excitedly. 

busella. Here’s one from the middle battle. Well, 
sir. 

the officer. O madam, I am spent. We are 
broken — pierced in the belly of our line! We have 
lost the mounds and are falling back on this monastery. 
Get you hence, for Christ Jesu’s sake! By your leave, 
a kerchief . . 

He falls dead into the arms of two captains. 
busella snatches the sword from his nerveless 
hand. The captains hear him away. 

busella. [Thrusting the sword upon COLOMAN.] 
Fight, if not for Hungary, if not for me, at least for 
your brother’s wife and the child of you twain! 


126 


COLOMAN 


[act v 


COLOMAN. [ Recoiling a moment.'] Comes Escala- 
bore from his pool? [ His fingers closing about the 
hilt almost mechanically.] I did not think ever to hold 
a sword again . . [ Trying its poise.] ’Twas with 

such a weapon that I smote the Croats! [Loudly.] 
With such a weapon now will I cleave this black 
Csupor from crown to base! [Brandishing it, he cries 
his battle-cry.] Coloman cometh! 

GUYON rakovscy. [With wild ardour.] A Coloman! 
A Coloman! 

The cry is taken up by the soldiers within and 
without the enclosure, coloman dashes through 
the archway followed by guyon and Stephen, 
with the captains. Quickly the refectory is 
emptied. There remain only busella and ilona, 
who has wrapped bela in a shawl and lain him, 
sleeping, on the grass. JOHN csaba drops on 
his knees in the archway, fervently telling his 
beads: but ever and anon raising his head to 
mark the progress of the distant battle. 
busella. [Clasping her hands.] God be with you, 
O my lost lord . . 

john csaba. Pater noster, qui es in coelis . . 

Then busella turns swiftly to ilona. 
busella. Let me look at your face — in the light. 
’Tis not so ill. Yet it was not that fabulous bronze 
hair, those woodland eyes, this dewy throat — dim 
auguries of moonlessness ! — for he saw you not. 

It was that lodestone of the rose, deep in the petals. 
It was that inward woman, deep in yourself. Where 
can I lay my finger and say “this was it”? Such puis- 
sance over the passion of a man lives in elusiveness . . 
a sudden soft hand, the fragrance of the flesh, the rich 
voice subtied to a whisper! 

ilona. Oh, in the name of God . . 
busella. I do think it was that subtle whisper, that 
mystery of you, which held him so long caught in 
your spools of gossamer. Your shadow has been the 
mistress of my house these many years. I have fought 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


127 


a forlorn battle with the distemper of a man’s imagina- 
tion . . and we were once lovers, Coloman and I! 

JOHN csaba. Et dimitte nobis debita nostra . . 

busella. Can you fathom what it is to a woman to 
lie in a cold bed and be clasped by her dreaming bed- 
fellow as the bedfellow of his dream? The memory of 
you was a poppy-syrup to Coloman ’s nobility; he drank 
of you and drank deep and was mazed, and then he 
awaked — and drank again ! 

ILONA. Had I not left him? 

busella. As the salt leaves the sea . . I have it 
in me to be barbaric with you. 

JOHN csaba. Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus 
nostris . . 

ilona. I am so bruised with life that I am become 
indifferent to blows. My coronal is of fated cypress 
twined with disastrous myrtle. Add to it your sprig 
of bitter hemlock. What does it matter? You do but 
trouble a woman fallen on age. 

busella. You were a girl unfolded when first you 
covenanted with Coloman . . 

ilona. I was a wife, thrust into unseasonable 
womanhood by a jewelled boor. Mine were politic 
nuptials. By God, I could not have borne a child to 
Almos! I came to this rich, sombre court a Greek 
girl whose days had been as a summer sojourn under 
an almond tree. I found my bridegroom drunken — 
a young Silenus: and, in my revulsion, I happened 
upon Coloman. He was walking in a pleached alley, 
planted with pomegranates, and he spoke to me like 
a wise man and with tenderness, and picked me a 
fruit. But as Ilona I moved him not. It was as the 
peasant girl who stopped him in the darkness and 
bade him love her that I got him for the father of 
my firstborn. 

JOHN csaba. Libera nos a malo . . 

ilona. I was a mother, it would seem, before I 
conceived. You, to whom I am a light woman, ponder 


128 


COLOMAN 


[ACT V 


this well. It was no common desire that drove me to 
Coloman. 

BUSELLA. You have a passionate voice yet you speak 
with strange dispassion. Is your speech a mask of 
ice laid over deep water? Tell me, my lady Ilona, how 
much was Coloman himself to you? 

ilona. [ Averting her gaze.] A man wise, and tem- 
perate in his wisdom . . 

busella. Little sophist . . You loved him! If 
they bear him back unto us dead will you look upon 
him less moved than I? 

ilona. Spare me . . I grew to love him. 

busella. Ilona, speak truth to me. You loved him 
even in that pleached alley planted with pome- 
granates . . 

ilona. I will speak truth to you. I loved Coloman 
as the pinetree loves the wind or as the valley the 
first star. I have cried it aloud from my casement 
to the green east, and laid bare my bosom from my 
tent hungrily to the brazen moon. I yearned for 
Coloman in secret even as he for me; but I dared not 
find him and he could not find me. Yet through him 
this poor shuttlecock of a woman, battledored by 
gownsmen and legates, was made, after her fashion, 
happy! Through him was her child compounded of a 
pure element! 

busella. [ Pointing to the sleeping boy.] And 

through him were those jocund eyes — bodkined! 

ilona. He has but marred what himself did make. 
I must struggle after content. Now, proud wife of 
Coloman, you have it i’ the teeth! Do with me ac- 
cording to your pride. 

busella. We are two strange-fated women met to 
quarrel over a doom that is none of man! There is 
a remorseless fellowship in this . . 

JOHN SCABA. Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, 
sancta Dei Genitrix . . 

busella. [ Bowing her head.] What meditations 
are there for us two in the night watches to come! 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


129 


ilona. We shall be as a sea-shore scarred by the 
sea . . 

JOHN csaba. Nec attinget illas cruciatus . . 

BELA. [Awaking.] Mother . . [Rising in terror.'] 
Mother ! 

ilona. I am here. 

bela. Let me come to you . . 

ILONA. [Holding out her arms to him.] Come. 

But in his blindness he passes her and goes to 
busella whose hand he takes. 

bela. Kiss me . . [busella bends over him.] You 
are weeping. 

ilona. Weeping? 

busella. [Lifting up her face.] I, too, am a 
woman . . 

ilona. There are such hidden lightnings in the 
silences of ourselves. 

JOHN csaba has risen and hurries forward. 

JOHN CSABA. [To BUSELLA.] Madam, the King has 
left the battle! He makes back unattended. Our 
men are in retreat towards the lemon avenues that 
slope upward away from Pesth. May God in His 
benevolence deal evilly with these Magyars! 

busella. Then are you and I beyond history, my 
lord bishop? 

John csaba. But not beyond Providence, daughter. 
Mater Christi, exaudi nos! 

COLOMAN, haggard and breathless , enters from 
the archway , his snapped sword in his hand. 

JOHN CSABA. The King! 

COLOMAN. Escalabore — broken! [He throws the 
weapon from him , sinking upon the steps. The steel 
clangs on the stone.] My strength is outfought . . 

JOHN csaba. This is . . disaster? 

COLOMAN. Have you eyes, ears, senses? My 
brother overwhelms us. A black monk of some strange 
brotherhood walks in the midst of the fight. He leads 
the rebels through our defences, and none can tell who 
he be! [Rising he comes to them with forced calm- 


130 


COLOMAN 


[act v 


ness.] You are imperilled. Listen: I have made pro- 
vision for you . . for us. I have directed Guyon to 
furnish a troop of spears who will bear you company 
to the monastery at Gran. To them, and to you, John 
Csaba, I commit these three. I will not be failed — 
nor will I fail. You have your orders. [ Approaching 
the women.'] And you, what can I say to you at this 
last? For I have loved you both. In an old tale there 
were two sad women who went together . . Go you 
into peace. 

busella. Coloman ! Husband ! 
ilona. [ Softly and tenderly.] And you — ? 
coloman. I am foretold. Therefore let us kiss, 
making an end. Busella, wife, farewell! [He kisses 
her. Then, turning to ILONA.] And you, O southern 
star . . [He kisses ilona.] Lift me up your child. 
[She does so. He passes his hands over the boy*s fore- 
head.] 0 pardon me, little shuttered house, for your 
dark windows. [She sets him down.] Let him not 
remember me. [To busella.] Your son has fought 
at my side today . . a valiant boy! [He puts his arms 
about them both.] Now do we part, dear women, nor 
shall we again greet nor take leave . . for I think 
there is no Heaven. 

JOHN csaba. [Who has stood apart from the group 
extending his arms towards them in blessing.] The 
peace of God which passeth all understanding . . 

He is too moved to continue, guyon rakovscy 
enters quickly from the archway to the right. 
guyon rakovscy. I have your spears, Sir. 
coloman. Then go, and quickly. [To csaba.] Your 
horses are Arabian: their speed is your sole reliance. 
Remember, and farewell. 

JOHN csaba. You have been my consecrate brother. 
I commend you to our God. 

the women, with bela, have passed through the 
small archway to the right. CSABA follows. 
coloman remains looking after them in a 
reverie. 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


131 


coloman. I feel now as when on strange summer 
dawns, among my fig-trees, I have heard the trumpet 
of the last star. 

guyon rakovscy. And now, back into battle! 
coloman. You paw the ground, you restless charger. 
My hand is from your rein. Go! 

guyon rakovscy. Not without you. A moment and 
these walls are to the enemy! Look yonder, where 
they come, and Almos and Csupor with the black monk ! 
I would give my father’s sword for one glimpse of 
that monk’s face! 

coloman. Is it some old enemy of mine . . or 
friend? 

guyon rakovscy. Hasten! The flash of an arrow 
cuts us off! 

coloman. There are forests in my Hungary where, 
in winter, travel the white sledges, overtaken by the 
swift wolves. Then, oftentimes, the man, confiding 
the horses to his woman, leaps among the pack, and 
with his lifeblood stays the pursuit. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. King, I am that man! 
coloman. No, I. The dance of swords awaits you, 
my general. 

guyon rakovscy. Then am I a rebel — I budge not ! 
coloman. [ His eye flashing.'] What, would you 

balk me in my last hour of empire? I am still your 
king. Back into battle! [ Softening .] Yet do not 

think me unmindful that you are my loved familiar. 
[Embracing him.] Guyon! 
guyon rakovscy. Hail and farewell! 

He goes, coloman mounts the steps and seats 
himself on the abbot’s throne , waiting. There is 
a long pause. Then almos — his eyes bandaged 
with white linen — led by otto csupor and fedor 
gyuri appears outside the main archway. With 
them is SIMON szvela. His Venetian cloak is 
turned about so as to display the black lining. 
The hood , like that of a black Capuchin , has 
fallen back from his face. 


132 


COLOMAN 


[ACT V 


fedor gyuri. [ Gazing up at the frowning archway .] 
This is Hell-gate. Mark it for tomorrow. 
almos. I slip, good Csupor . . 
otto csupor. You have walked over a battlefield . . 
fedor gyuri. Your soles are red with it, my lord! 
OTTO CSUPOR. [ Menacingly to szvela.] Look you, 
Sirrah Double-coat, if this prospers you shall be the 
“my lord” you affect — if not, I’ll dung my vines with 
you! 

simon szvela. [With a deprecatory bow.] I am 
a man, desperate . . 
almos. Is it here? 

SIMON SZVELA. Here. 

They enter the enclosure. 

otto csupor. [Almost wonderingly.] Did he tarry? 
simon szvela. [Pointing to the abbot's throne.] 
Look. 

almos. Bring me to him. [They lead him forward.] 
Is he alone? Sits he or stands he? 

SIMON SZVELA. He sits — alone. 
almos. Let me face him. [szvela sets him opposite 
the throne.] In my right hand . . [He holds out his 
open palm and otto csupor places the handle of a long 
poignard in his fingers, almos grips it feverishly.] 
So! Why does he not speak? 
otto csupor. He was ever sullen . . 
almos. I am ready. 

szvela leads him to the foot of the throne, colo- 
man surveys them without stirring. 

SIMON SZVELA. There are steps . . 

szvela supports him up the steps, almos puts 
out his hand and touches coloman. 
almos. Where do I touch him? 
simon szvela. At the heart. 

almos. [Thrusting his face close to coloman’s, at 
the same time lifting the bandage from his eyes with 
his left hand, during which coloman watches him sor- 
rowfully but without wincing.] Look well upon me. 
[Then lowering the bandage, he stabs coloman swiftly 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


133 


in the side.] I have done it! [He raises the poignard 
in the air and then flings it down the steps , turning 
and groping to descend .] Come to me, Csupor! 

otto csupor and gyuri lead him down. SIMON 
szvela puts his own napkin into coloman’s 
hands , who presses it listlessly to his wound. 
SIMON szvela. [Before he , too, descends.] And 
yet . . 

OTTO CSUPOR. [To ALMOS.] And now the other 

quarry, my lord — 
almos. Yes. Ilona. 

They guide him out to the right by the small 
archway, szvela stands at the base of the 
steps , one foot resting on the highest, elbow on 
knee and chin in hand, looking up at the dying 
COLOMAN. 

coloman. [After a pause, slowly.] Was I worth 
so great price to you, Simon? 

simon szvela. As what, my lord? 
coloman. Your soul. All men attain their desire. 
You, being of the world, have achieved the world. I 
hunger and thirst for elsewhere. Is there anything 
put together that does not house its own decay? 
[With a smile.] Your pity is even as your love of 
life, cruel: it stops me here. [Throwing the napkin 
to the ground.] Let me forth ! 

simon szvela. The No-Man is freed from the great 
sorrow of his race . . 

coloman. I am lost in the tide of my beloved’s hair. 
I hear trees rustling in a great wind. And now there 
is no noise . . 

He dies. 

simon szvela. [Slowly, still contemplating colo- 
man.] Who is dead if I am alive? 

The din of battle suddenly increases in a rapid 
crescendo. At the back in the far distance can 
be seen bodies of Magyar troops hurrying across 
the fields towards Pesth. Then, suddenly, above 
the clamour comes the shrill winding of horns. 


184 


COLOMAN 


[act v 


For a moment szvela seems struck with panic. 

simon szvela. The horns of Eguon! [fedor gyuri 
enters from the small archway, szvela rushes to him.] 
How now? What now? Your brows are bloodied! 

fedor gyuri. As we swarmed this hill of lemon 
groves there came over the crest of it horsemen, horse- 
men, horsemen ! — their lances sparkling in the sun . . 

SIMON SZVELA. Speak, Speak! 

fedor gyuri. Our foot, being wearied with plunder 
and pursuit, are, I do think, in mid-rout! Duke Almos 
is stuck by an arrow and slain not two hundred paces 
from these walls. [ Drawing szvela to an aperture.] 
And look, there Otto Csupor and Eguon himself are 
met! 

Simon szvela. Ay, and Csupor is smitten . . By 
Hercules, a great blow! [Quickly.] Tell me, who 
besides Otto Csupor and the Duke knew of my dis- 
affection from Coloman? 

fedor gyuri. [Unwarily.] I only, my lord. You 
were muffled . . 

simon szvela. And Almos and Csupor are dead . . 
We will make a bargain together. 

fedor gyuri. No, I’ll seek sanctuary, I ha’ done 
with the wars. 

simon szvela. What! Fedor Gyuri a coward! 
[Airily.] Stay! A louse upon your jerkin! [fedor 
stops , taken completely off his guard and with his 
back to him: szvela draws his knife and strikes him 
in the armpit. He drops with a dull groan, szvela 
stands over him , smilingly re-sheathing his weapon. 

simon szvela. The third mouth — shut. You are 
no nice sight, my friend. [He slips his cloak from his 
shoulders and covers the dead man.] A pall for you. 
War is very like peace — only more honest. 

Even as he speaks a rabble of struggling soldiery 
passes across the near background , the King’s 
men throwing back and pursuing the dispersed 
Magyars. Much ugly talk is bandied between 
the combatants, szvela watches them contem- 


ACT V] 


COLOMAN 


135 


platively as they disappear. From the small 
archway there enter guyon rakovscy, gabriel 
eguon and Stephen, talking as they come. At- 
tending them are several captains. 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. [ To eguon.] Of you shall men 
speak as Eguon the Timely . . God be praised for our 
good luck! We shall have saved him! 

GABRIEL EGUON. You said he was here. Where? 

STEPHEN. [ Seeing coloman.] O my father . . 

They turn aghast to the throne. Stephen 
mounts the steps. 

simon szvela. [ Coming forward .] Here’s tragedy, 
my lords! 

gabriel eguon. Have I saved a dead man’s king- 
dom? 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. My loved master . . 

Stephen. [ Bending over coloman.] Foully stabbed! 

GUYON RAKOVSCY. That a little gash should let out 
so omnipotent a man! 

gabriel eguon. [To szvela.] What was your part 
in this? 

simon szvela. [ Pointing to the dead body of gyuri.] 
I killed . . him. 

guyon rakovscy. And he — the King? [As he 
examines the cloak over the body.'] The black monk! 

gabriel eguon. Do I know him? [guyon uncovers 
the face.] No. 

simon szvela. [ Peering over their shoulders.] A 
mean fellow — he looks a mercenary. > 

gabriel eguon. Bear him away. 

The captains take up the body and depart. 
Stephen has come down from the throne. In 
his hand is a piece of crumpled linen. He speaks 
with a simple dignity which becomes him very 
well. 

Stephen. A napkin, wet with my father’s blood. 
Some kindly goodman did give it. I would thank him. 

simon szvela. It is mine. 

Stephen. I see ’tis so embroidered . . [He loosens 


136 


COLOMAN 


[ACT V 


a jewelled chain from his neck and hangs it about 
szvela’s.] Sweet friend, my father’s friend, wear you 
this in his sweet memory. I have no words to thank 
you all. This is too sudden a coming into my king- 
dom. Pardon my omissions. [To guyon, very gently .] 
You, who were more his son than I, fetch hither a 
golden litter for the dead Coloman. Nay, do not take 
it so. [To EGUON.] And you, set our body-horsemen 
in a solemn circle about this ruin. Do not kneel to 
me — yet. 

He turns away , and stands , rapt, before his 
dead father. 

guyon rakovscy. This is a sad conquering . . 

Gabriel EGUON. [Patting him on the shoulder .] I 
am too old to be sad. Death is a shallow stream: we 
can see through it. Go down with me. 

And they go out together through the archway. 

Stephen. Not here do we take our last leave, 0 my 
father. [Coming, with a smile, to szvela.] Come you 
to Pesth at my right hand. My father would often 
speak of you as the door-post of Hungary. You are 
a great man. 

simon szvela. And he was a great spirit. 

They walk quickly and silently away . A peace, 
grand and yet sinister, settles on the ruin. The 
croivs sweep back to their nests and the sunlight 
plays upon the dead King’s hands. 




































































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